The only cathedral in the world dedicated to the ‘Santa di Assisi’, its original surviving structures embody the passage from the Romanesque to the Gothic lines, both revisited with a Sardinian touch. The refined façade and the imposing bell tower of the Santa Chiara cathedral are located in the historic centre of Iglesias, in the main piazza, which is also home to the town hall and the Palazzo Vescovile. Epigraphic evidence places the construction of the church in the 1280s at the behest of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca. It first became a cathedral for a decade starting from 1503, when the diocese was transferred from Tratalias to the mining town, until 1513 upon the suppression of the Sulcis seat. In 1736, it definitively regained its title.