The elegant decadence of Cagliari's Sant'Elia Stadium

Centuries and centuries of Italian history can only be told through the ruins scattered here and there along the peninsula, from old settlements in the north to the ancient colonies of Magna Greece. Ruins and decay define the narrative of a glorious past and help reconstruct the stages of a historical journey. In more recent history, historical ruins have been replaced by architectural projects left unfinished, or by buildings only partially demolished, which remain carcasses in the landscape, dead giants to be looked at with melancholy. In Cagliari, the carcass is that of the old Sant'Elia Stadium, a facility abandoned by the Sardinian team in 2017 and replaced by the new Unipol Domus, built just a few metres away from the facility that made the history of Cagliari Calcio and football in Italy, hosting three matches of the 1990 World Cup. 

Photographer Enrico Follesa's shots are football archaeology, a journey through what remains of the stands, among a few seats that still face the lawn, which is now a small rectangle of wild grass. One can still appreciate the structure of the facility used since 1970/71 and designed by architect Antonio Sulprizio, before the unfit-for-play problems emerged in 2012 and before the last official match in June 2017. Follesa captures elements that freeze time: a ball still in the field or an abandoned clock on the old athletics track, which is now a sun-cracked crack. Only melancholy remains, where before there were the goals of Zola, Suazo and Daniele Conti's runs under the curve, when the actions of Esposito and Langella were among the best things Serie A could give.