SASSARI, the chief town of the northern province of the island of Sardinia (Italy), is situated in the midst of orange and olive groves at a height of 650 feet above the sea, 12,1 miles from Porto Torres, on the railway to Chilivani, a junction on the main line from Terranova to Cagliari. Till about 1860-65 it was surrounded by a high wall built in the 14th century and strengthened by twenty-six large square towers from GO to 80 feet high. The castle dates from 1327-1331. Originally built in the first half of the 15th century, when the see of Turris (Porto Torres) was removed to Sassari, the cathedral was restored in 1531 and received a new facade in the 18th century. The city besides contains a municipal palace, rebuilt since 1820, an episcopal palace dating originally from the 13th century, and a university (faculties of law and medicine, with 87 students in 1881-2) founded by Philip III. of Spain in 1617, as well as barracks, law courts, hospitals, and asylums. There is a white marble fountain - Fonte di Rosello - on the east side of the town, surmounted by a statue of St Gavinus, patron saint of the city, and from this source water is still hawked about the streets, though waterworks have recently been constructed by the municipality at a cost of upwards of £60,000. Most of the streets are narrow and tortuous, and vehicles are generally drawn by oxen. Sassari is separated by a low and swampy stretch of country from its port at Porto Torres - a village on the site of Tunis Libisonis, Colonia Julia, with a basilica of the 11th century (S. Gavino) and the ruins of a temple of Fortune now called Palazzo del Re Barbaro. The population of the city was 22,945 in 1862, and 31,596 in 1881.

Sassari appears in the archives of the monastery of San Pietro di Silki in 1118 as Tathari, and the local pronunciation is still Tatari. In 1204 the town was declared an independent republic, and a very liberal code of laws was published in 1316 (edited by Don Pasquale Tola, Cagliari, 1850). Sassari was sacked by the French in 1527, and in 1796 the Sardinian popular party seized the city, expelled the viceroy, and dismantled the castle and "palaces."

square miles, and a population in 1881 of 519,207 (males 253,757, females 265,450). This subdivision consists of four thanahs or stations, viz., Stisseram, Khargar, Dhanpion, and Dehree. The thanah of Sasseram has an area of 691 square miles, and a population (1881) of 155,760 (75,031 males, 80,729 females). It contains the tomb of the Afghan Sher Shah, who conquered Humayun, and subsequently became emperor of Delhi.