Macomer

Macomer is the main town of the Marghine, in the heart of Sardinia, on a basalt plateau over 500 metres high, between the Marghine range and the Campeda plateau. Its central position has always made it a crossroads: here the Carlo Felice highway, linking Cagliari to Sassari, meets the roads and railways to Nuoro and Bosa. Macomer is a hard-working town, famous for its cheeses, but also the ideal starting point to discover one of Sardinia's richest areas for nuraghi and a landscape of plateaus, woods and springs.

History and prehistory

The Macomer area has been inhabited since very ancient times. In the rock shelter of Sa Tanca 'e sa Mura some of the oldest human remains in Sardinia were found, dating back many thousands of years. In the Nuragic age the plateau filled with towers: the municipality alone counts dozens. In Roman times the settlement, perhaps called Macopsisa, lay on the great road from Karales to Turris Libisonis, as the Roman milestones displayed in town recall. In the Middle Ages Macomer belonged to the Giudicato of Torres and then to Arborea, and in 1478, on the nearby plain, the battle of Macomer was fought, in which Aragonese troops defeated the Marquis of Oristano Leonardo Alagon, ending the last Sardinian resistance. In the 19th and 20th centuries the town grew with the railway and the dairy and textile industries.

The Santa Barbara nuraghe and Tamuli

At the entrance to town, next to the highway, stands the Santa Barbara nuraghe, a complex nuraghe with a well-preserved central tower and a bastion, easy to visit. But the most evocative site is the Tamuli complex, a few kilometres away on a basalt plateau: it includes a nuraghe, the remains of a village, three giants' tombs and six betyls, sacred cone-shaped stones, three of which have two reliefs representing female breasts, a symbol of fertility. Tamuli is one of the most magical places of Sardinian archaeology.

The town

Macomer's old centre is built of dark basalt. The parish church of San Pantaleo, from the 16th century, in Catalan Gothic style, has a sober façade and an interior with side chapels. The town also has exhibition spaces devoted to the history, archaeology and traditions of the Marghine. There are markets, shops and dairies where you can buy cheese.

Nature

Around Macomer the landscape is made of basalt plateaus, pastures, oak woods and springs. The Marghine range, with holm and downy oak woods, offers hiking trails and views over the Planargia and the sea at Bosa. The Campeda plateau, to the north, is a wide expanse of pasture and cork woods, with horses and cattle grazing freely.

Festivals

The main festival is that of San Pantaleo, the patron, in July, with procession and popular celebrations. In January the Sant'Antonio bonfires are lit, and during the year there are fairs and shows of cheese and local farm products. In summer country festivals draw people from the surrounding villages.

Food

Macomer is one of the capitals of Sardinian cheese: pecorino romano, pecorino sardo and fiore sardo are made here and exported all over the world. Marghine cooking is roast meat, lamb, suckling pig, traditional bread and almond and honey sweets. It goes with Cannonau and with white wines from the Planargia, such as Malvasia di Bosa.

Getting there

Macomer lies on the Carlo Felice highway, about an hour and a half from Cagliari, an hour from Sassari and 50 minutes from Nuoro. The station is on the main Cagliari-Sassari line and is also the junction for Nuoro. It is the ideal base to visit Bosa and the Planargia, the Montiferru with Santu Lussurgiu, Ghilarza and Lake Omodeo, and the nuraghi of central Sardinia.

What to see

• Nuragic complex of Tamuli
• Nuraghe Santa Barbara
• Quartiere di Santa Croce
• Church of San Pantaleo

Festivals and traditions

• San Pantaleo26 July

Nearby towns

• Birori · 3 km
• Bortigali · 5 km
• Borore · 6 km
• Silanus · 10 km
• Dualchi · 11 km
• Sindia · 11 km
• Aidomaggiore · 12 km
• Noragugume · 12 km

Sources: Grande Enciclopedia della Sardegna; ISTAT. Original texts by Gotosardinia.