IGLESIAS  , a

town and episcopal see of Sardinia in the province of Cagliari, from which it is 34 M . W.N.W. by rail, 62o ft. above sea-level . Pop . (1901) 10,436 (town), 20,874 (commune) . It is finely situated among the mountains in the S.W. portion of the island, and is chiefly important as the centre of a mining district; it has a government school for mining engineers . The minerals are conveyed by a small railway via Monteponi (with its large lead and zinc mine) to Portovesme (15 m . S.W. of Iglesias in the sheltered gulf of Carloforte), near Portoscuso, where they are shipped . The total amount. of the minerals extracted in Sardinia in 1905 was 170,236 tons and their value 7 65,0J4 (chiefly consisting of 99,749 tons of calamine zinc, 26,051 of blende zinc, 24,798 tons of lead and 15,429 tons of lignite) : the greater part of them—118,009 tons—was exported from Portoscuso by sea and most of the rest from Cagliari, the zinc going mainly to Antwerp, and in a less proportion to Bordeaux and Dunkirk, while the lead is sent to Pertusola near Spezia, to be smelted . At Portoscuso is also a tunny fishery . The cathedral of Iglesias, built by the Pisans, has a good facade (restored); the interior is late Spanish Gothic . San Francesco is a fine Gothic church with a gallery over the entrance, while Sta Chiara and the church of the Capuchins (the former dating from 1285) show a transition between Romanesque and Gothic . The battlemented town walls are well preserved and picturesque; the castle, built in 1325, flow contains a glass factory .

The church of Nostra Signora del Buon Cammino above the town (Io8o ft.) commands a fine view .