The Barefoot Race of Cabras

At dawn on the first Saturday of September, in Cabras on the Sinis peninsula, a crowd of boys and men dressed in white gathers around the church of Santa Maria. They are is curridoris, the runners: barefoot, in a white habit tied at the waist with a cord, waiting for the moment to lift the statue of San Salvatore onto their shoulders. When the saint comes out, the race begins. There are almost a thousand of them, and they will run for kilometres, on tarmac and dirt tracks, to the village of San Salvatore di Sinis in the middle of the countryside.

The legend of the Moors

According to tradition, the race was born in 1619. That year the Sinis coast was attacked by one of the many raids by corsairs from North Africa that for centuries tormented Sardinia's coastal villages. To save the saint's statue, kept in the country chapel, the people of Cabras carried it at a run towards the village. They tied branches to their feet, and as they ran they raised a cloud of dust so large it looked like a great army. The frightened raiders withdrew.

Since then, every year, the young men of Cabras renew that vow by running barefoot with the saint, as their ancestors did. To take part you must be born or resident in Cabras, and for many the race is a lifelong commitment: some curridoris have run for more than fifty years, and fourteen-year-olds run for the first time.

The race

On Saturday morning the statue is carried at a run from Cabras to the village of San Salvatore, about seven kilometres away. The runners take turns under the statue without ever stopping, while the others run around it, a white river moving through the morning light between the lagoons and fields of the Sinis. Along the road villagers applaud and cheer. On arrival the saint is placed in the village church, where it stays for the feast.

On Sunday evening the return race is run: the statue leaves the village and goes back to Cabras, again carried by the barefoot runners. It is an even more moving race, in the sunset light and with the previous day's fatigue in the legs. When it reaches the town the crowd welcomes the saint with long, emotional applause.

The village of San Salvatore

The village of San Salvatore di Sinis is one of Sardinia's most unusual places. It is a small cluster of cumbessias, the low white houses where the faithful lived during the novena, gathered around a 17th-century church. For most of the year it is empty and silent; it comes to life at the end of August and beginning of September for the novena and the feast. In the 1960s, with its frontier-town look, it was used as a set for some western films.

Beneath the church lies a hypogeum, an underground sanctuary of very ancient origin, probably linked to a water cult in nuragic times, then used in the Punic and Roman periods and finally turned into a Christian place of worship. Graffiti and drawings from different eras can still be seen on its walls: ships, figures, inscriptions. It can be visited at certain times of the year.

The Sinis

Cabras and San Salvatore are in the heart of the Sinis, one of the most beautiful areas of western Sardinia. A few kilometres away are the archaeological site of Tharros, the early Christian church of San Giovanni di Sinis, the quartz-grain beaches of Is Arutas and Mari Ermi and the peninsula's marine reserve. The Cabras lagoon is famous for its mullet bottarga, and the Cabras civic museum holds the Giants of Mont'e Prama, the great nuragic stone statues.

Tips

The outward race starts at dawn: to see it, be in Cabras very early or wait for the runners along the provincial road to San Salvatore, where traffic is controlled. The Sunday evening return is best watched as it arrives in town. Early September is a great time for the Sinis: the sea is warm and the beaches less crowded than in August. You can stay in Cabras, Oristano or coastal hamlets such as Putzu Idu, in the municipality of San Vero Milis.