Iglesiente
Encyclopedia
The Iglesiente is a traditional and geographical subdivision of Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It encompasses the northern province of Carbonia-Iglesias
Province of Carbonia-Iglesias
Carbonia-Iglesias is a province in the autonomous region of Sardinia, Italy which includes the historical region of Sulcis-Iglesiente, the southwestern part of Sardinia.-Overview:...

  and the south-western one of the province of Medio Campidano
Province of Medio Campidano
Medio Campidano is a province in the autonomous region of Sardinia, Italy.It was created in 2005 from part of the province of Cagliari. It contains 28 communities, the largest of which by population are :-Politics:...

, and its main center is Iglesias
Iglesias
Iglesias is a comune of Carbonia-Iglesias province in Sardinia, Italy.-Overview:Situated at 190 m in the hills in the southwest of Sardinia, it was a centre of a mining district, with lead, zinc, and silver being extracted, as well as for the distillation of sulfuric acid.Iglesias'...

.

Languages spoken include Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 and Sardinian
Sardinian language
Sardinian is a Romance language spoken and written on most of the island of Sardinia . It is considered the most conservative of the Romance languages in terms of phonology and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum....

 (Campidanesu).

History

Historically, it was inhabited since pre-Nuragic
Nuragic civilization
The Nuragic civilization was a civilization of Sardinia, lasting from the Bronze Age to the 2nd century AD. The name derives from its most characteristic monuments, the nuraghe. They consist of tower-fortresses, built starting from about 1800 BC...

 times. Later, it became an important metallurgic district for the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

, who had here a town known as Metalla

In the Middle Ages, the Pisans
Republic of Pisa
The Republic of Pisa was a de facto independent state centered on the Tuscan city of Pisa during the late tenth and eleventh centuries. It rose to become an economic powerhouse, a commercial center whose merchants dominated Mediterranean and Italian trade for a century before being surpassed and...

 founded here Villa di Chiesa (modern Iglesias), which soon became on the largest in the island. Later it was conquered by the Aragonese
Kingdom of Aragon
The Kingdom of Aragon was a medieval and early modern kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, in Spain...

, who held it until 1720, when the house of Savoy
House of Savoy
The House of Savoy was formed in the early 11th century in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to eventually rule the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until the end of World War II, king of Croatia and King of Armenia...

 acquired the whole Sardinia and founded here the town of Gonnesa
Gonnesa
Gonnesa is a comune in the Province of Carbonia-Iglesias in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 60 km west of Cagliari and about 14 km northwest of Carbonia, in the Iglesiente subregion....

.

Recently, the decline of the mining sector has caused a crisis of the local economy.
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