The walls embrace a large garden where nature, history, culture and wellness reign. Monte Claro park sits on the summit of the eponymous hill, in the centre of Cagliari, a short distance from another of the seven hills on which the capital was built, San Michele hill. This park spreads out over 25 hectares delineated by walls that once encircled an old psychiatric hospital. In the late 19th century, the Province of Cagliari rented the area to house the unwell, and over time it became the pavilions of the hospital. All around were orchards, vineyards and crop fields where sometimes even the patients worked. The hospital was shut down in 1998 and the entire area was repurposed as a city park, opening in 2001. The main building, Villa Clara, where the hospital’s director once lived, is now the metropolitan library.