Sa die de sa Sardigna

Sardinia's Day
G. Maria Angioy enters in Sassari (1795)
Official name	Sa die de sa Sardigna
Also called	Giornata del popolo sardo
Observed by	Sardinia, Italy
Significance	Commemorates the Sardinian Vespers
Date	April 28
Frequency	annual

Sardinia's Day (Sa die de sa Sardigna in Sardinian language, La dì di la Sardigna in Sassarese, La dì di la Saldigna in Gallurese, lo dia de la Sardenya in Algherese, Il giorno della Sardegna in Italian), also known as Sardinian people's Day (Giornata del popolo sardo), is a holiday in Sardinia commemorating the Sardinian Vespers occurring in 1794–1796.

In the last decades of the XVIII° century following the Savoyard take-over of the island and the once Spanish Kingdom, discontent began to grow among the Sardinians towards the Piedmontese administration. Sardinian peasants resented the feudal rule and both the local nobles and the bourgeoisie were being left out of any active civil and military role, with the viceroy and other people from the Italian Mainland being appointed in charge of the island. Such political unrest was bolstered further by the international situation, with particular regard to the episodes leading to the French revolution.

In 1793, a French fleet tried to conquer the island along two lines of attack, the first one across the Southern coast in Cagliari and the other, led by the young Lieutenant Colonel Napoleon Bonaparte, in the nearby of the Maddalena archipelago. However, the locals managed to resist the invasion by the French, and began expecting the Savoyards to acknowledge the feat and improve their condition in return. The Sardinians thus demanded most of the offices be reserved for them, along with autonomy from the Savoyard ruling class.

The King's peremptory refusal to grant the island any of these wishes eventually spurred the rebellion, with the arrest of two notable figures of the so-called "Patriotic Party" (the lawyers from Cagliari Vincenzo Cabras and Efisio Pintor) being the final spark of unrest amongst the populace. On 28 April 1794, known as sa dii de s'aciappa (standing for "the day of the pursuit and capture"), people in Cagliari started chasing any Piedmontese functionaries they could find, and by May all the 514 Savoyard officers were put on a boat and sent back to the Mainland. Encouraged by what happened in Cagliari, the revolt spread throughout the island and people in Alghero and Sassari did the same. The uprising was then led by the republican Giovanni Maria Angioy, then a judge of the Royal Hearing (Reale Udienza), but it was later repressed by the loyalist forces.