The Cagliari State Archives is the beneficiary of the project entitled “UPGRADING AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS AT THE CAGLIARI STATE ARCHIVES” – CUP (Unique Project Code) F34H25000080007. The project has been approved for funding under PN Cultura 2021–2027, Priority 2, Action 2.1.1 – “Implementation of structural and building-services interventions to improve the energy efficiency of State cultural sites”, for a total amount of €5,124,247.52.

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The Cagliari State Archives has a long history, closely linked to the political and institutional events that saw the city serve for centuries as the capital of the Regnum Sardiniae, under Catalan‑Aragonese, Spanish, Austrian and Piedmontese rule, up to Italian unification. It was established in 1332 by Alfonso IV, King of Aragon, to act as the general archive of the Kingdom. In the Eighteenth century, after the brief Austrian occupation, the Kingdom of Sardinia passed to Victor Amadeus II of Savoy under the 1718 Treaty of London

Under the rule of Charles Emmanuel III and his minister Bogino, the Archives was reconstituted as the central and general archive of the island. In 1848, with the end of the Kingdom of Sardinia’s administrative autonomy, it was downgraded from general to provincial status, under the name Regi Archivi (Royal Archives). By Royal Decree No. 1852 of 5 March 1874, it was placed (like the other archives of the pre‑unification States) under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior, becoming in all respects a State Archives with provincial competence. Since 1975, the Cagliari State Archives has been a regional office of the Ministry of Culture.

Its holdings, amounting to more than 10,000 linear metres of records, cover a chronological span of seven centuries, up to the most recent contemporary period. In this sense, the Archives is the most important preservation institution in the region, as it houses the most significant archival collections relating to the area. As a cultural venue, it is a key point of reference for historical research and education. It also provides administrative services and houses a paper conservation laboratory and one of the Ministry of Culture’s two‑year schools of archival, palaeography and diplomatic studies.

It is housed in a building dating from the 1920s, a rare example of archival architecture from the Fascist period. The coexistence, in a single premises, of storage areas, public service spaces and areas for cultural promotion entails a considerable commitment to ensuring that cultural programming does not draw resources away from the overriding need for preservation.

To address this overall requirement, a project proposal has been developed which, in summary, provides for the following works:

• insulation of opaque vertical surfaces;
• insulation of the flat roof;
• in the areas used for the building’s functional activities (offices, exhibition rooms, libraries, etc.), the existing oil-fired heating system, comprising an oil-fired boiler and radiator emitters, will be replaced by a hydronic heat-pump system with fan-coil units;
• in the storage areas, replacement of the current air‑handling unit (now being phased out) used to control temperature and humidity with a new air‑handling unit with a multifunction heat‑pump system;
• refurbishment of the electrical and lighting systems, together with a BACS system for the control and automation of heating/cooling and lighting;
• installation of a photovoltaic system on the roof and associated structures.

The proposed measures pursue the fundamental objective of improving efficiency and reducing the energy consumption attributable to the document‑preservation system. They also aim to limit energy use for heating and cooling the building in the areas intended for public and administrative activities, as well as for the management of all the facility’s services