SASSARI, a town and archiepiscopal see of Sardinia, capital of the province of Sassari, situated in the N.W. corner of the island, 121 m. by rail S.E. of Porto Torres on the north coast, and 211 m. N.W. of Alghero on the west coast, 762 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1931) (town) ; (commune). The town has a modern aspect, with spacious streets and squares. S. Maria di Betlemme has a good façade and Romanesque portal of the end of the 13th century. The museum in the university has an interesting collection of antiquities from all parts of the island, and belonging to the prehistoric, Phoenician and Roman periods. Sassari is connected by rail by a branch (281 m. E.S.E. to Chilivani) with the main line from Cagliari to Golfo degli Aranci, and with Porto Torres and Alghero. Eleven m. to the east is the Trinity, di Saccargia (12th cent.) with a lofty cam panile, one of the finest Pisan churches in the island.
The name, in the form Thatari, first occurs in the 12th century A.D. when a church of S. Nicola is mentioned. The town was in existence in 1217, when a body of Corsicans, driven out of their island by the cruelties of a Visconti of Pisa, took refuge there, and gave their name to a part of it. In 1288, four years after the defeat of Meloria, Pisa ceded Sassari to Genoa ; but Sassari enjoyed internal autonomy, and in 1316 published its stat utes (still extant), which are perhaps in part the reproduction of earlier ones. In 1323, however, Sassari submitted to the Aragonese king. The episcopal see was transferred here from Porto Torres in 1441. It was sacked by the French in 1527.
See P. II Comune di Sassari nei secoli XIII. e XIV. (Rome, 1885).