Quartucciu

The name comes from a milestone. In the countryside between Cagliari and the sea there were several medieval villages called Quarto, after the fourth milestone of the Roman road, and Quartucciu stands where Quarto Suso once was, also known as Quartutxo. The others were merged in 1327 with the village of Cepola and produced Quartu Sant'Elena. The municipal arms tell the story without words: the little church of Sant'Efisio and beside it a milestone carved with the numeral IV. In 1928 the town ceased to exist as a municipality and became a district of Cagliari together with Pirri, Monserrato and Selargius; it became independent again only in 1983, after fifty-five years.

In 2000, digging in the industrial estate, a necropolis was found by chance. This is the site of Pill'e Matta: more than two hundred tombs, over two thousand objects among cups, plates and oil lamps, and nearly all the burials intact. It was used from the fourth century before Christ to the fifth century after, from the Punics to the late Romans, and nobody knew it was down there. Not far off, in the park of the Sette Fratelli, stands the giants' tomb of Is Concias, one of the best preserved on the island; and in the church of San Giorgio Martire people venerate an eighteenth-century crucifix they call the crucifix of the rain.