In 1980, the State bought over the former Convitto Nazionale Canopoleno, left to fall into disuse, transforming it, after different restoration work and the establishment of a museum, into the current day Sassari National Gallery. The State could finally open up the vast heritage of works of art to the wider public, following bequeaths and private donations. One of these donations made by Giovanni Antonio Sanna in 1875 included paintings from the XVII-XVIII centuries and archaeological finds originally housed in the city’s Palazzo Ducale. The picture gallery has more than four hundred works dating to the XIII-XXI centuries, mostly portraits, which document the production of different schools and artists from the Middle Ages to the current day. These include: the polychrome wooden cross from the 1200s, the Triptych of Books from the 1300s, the Santo Diacono by the Master of Castelsardo, and Vivarini’s Madonna with Child. The third floor houses works by Sardinia’s most important artists from the XIX-XX centuries: A. Ballero, F. Figari, C. Floris, P. A. Manca, E. Tavolara and C. Battaglia, S. Dessy.
The building housing the Gallery has a long history dating from 1611 when the archbishop Antonio Canopolo first ordered it to be built. The Jesuits used it as a seminary for about two centuries, from 1627 onwards, to house novices. The suspension of the Society of Jesus at the end of the 1700s together with changes to the school and administrative system, transformed the Convent from religious seminary to State College for the middle classes. Around 1970, the Canopoleno National College moved to a new headquarters because of the difficulties faced in restoring the increasingly dilapidated building.
