Oristano, Sardinia: what to see, festivals and where to stay

Oristano is the city of Eleonora of Arborea, the queen-judge who gave Sardinia its first written law, and of the Sartiglia, the most spectacular horse joust in the Mediterranean. It is a flat, compact city lying on the plain at the mouth of the Tirso, a few kilometres from the sea and the lagoons of the Gulf of Oristano. It lacks the monumental air of Cagliari and the tourist fame of Alghero, but it has an elegant old town full of medieval memories, and it lies at the centre of one of Sardinia's most beautiful and least known areas: the Sinis peninsula, with Tharros, the quartz beaches and the Cabras lagoon.

Capital of Arborea

Oristano was born in the early Middle Ages as Aristanis, when the inhabitants of Tharros, the old Phoenician and Roman city at the tip of the Sinis, moved inland to escape raids from the sea. Around 1070 the archbishop and the judge also settled here, and the city became the capital of the Giudicato of Arborea, one of the four kingdoms into which medieval Sardinia was divided.

Arborea was the longest-lived and strongest of the giudicati. In the 14th century, under Mariano IV and then his daughter Eleonora, it came to control almost the whole island, fighting the Aragonese. Eleonora of Arborea, who ruled at the end of the century, promulgated in 1392 the Carta de Logu, a code of laws written in Sardinian, which governed civil life, farming and justice and remained in force over much of the island until 1827. After the defeat at Sanluri in 1409 the giudicato came to an end; Oristano became a marquisate until 1478, when the last marquis, Leonardo Alagon, was defeated at Macomer. From then on the city belonged to the Kingdom of Sardinia under Spain and then the House of Savoy. In 1974 it became a provincial capital.

Piazza Eleonora and the old town

The heart of the city is Piazza Eleonora d'Arborea, long and rectangular, with the 19th-century statue of the queen holding the Carta de Logu in the middle. On the square stand the town hall, housed in a former convent, and some stately palaces. From here run the shopping and strolling streets, Corso Umberto, Via Dritta and Via Garibaldi, with cafés, pastry shops and stores.

Two towers of the old walls survive from the giudicato. The tower of Mariano II, also called San Cristoforo or Porta Manna, built in 1290, dominates Piazza Roma with its bulk and bell; it was the city's main gate. Smaller is the Portixedda tower, the little gate, which can be visited. Walking around the old town you come across the churches of Santa Chiara, from the 14th century, and the Carmine, in Piedmontese Baroque style.

The cathedral and San Francesco

The cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, the Duomo, is the largest church in Sardinia. Born in the Middle Ages, it was rebuilt in Baroque style in the 18th century, but keeps its octagonal bell tower with an onion dome covered in coloured majolica tiles, the city's symbol, and some Gothic parts such as the Rimedio chapel. Inside are marbles, paintings and wooden sculptures.

The church of San Francesco, rebuilt in neoclassical style, holds the Crucifix of Nicodemus, a 14th-century wooden sculpture of great dramatic intensity showing the suffering body of Christ, considered one of the masterpieces of Gothic art in Sardinia.

The Antiquarium Arborense

The city's archaeological museum, the Antiquarium Arborense, holds finds from pre-nuragic times to the Middle Ages, especially from Tharros: pottery, jewellery, amulets and figurines. One section is devoted to Sardinian Renaissance painting, with the Retable of the Holy Christ and the Retable of the Madonna dei Consiglieri, and a large model recreates medieval Oristano with its walls and towers.

The Sartiglia

Every year, on the last Sunday and Tuesday of Carnival, Oristano hosts the Sartiglia, Sardinia's most famous horse joust. A masked rider, su Componidori, leads the race and tries to pierce at full gallop a star hanging from a ribbon; after him the other riders take their turn, and in the afternoon the pariglie perform spectacular acrobatics. The festival, organised by the farmers' and carpenters' guilds, is the most important moment of the year for the city.

Oristano's sea

The municipality reaches the sea at Torregrande, the city's beach resort, seven kilometres from the centre. Here there is a long beach of fine dark sand, a marina and the Spanish tower of Torregrande, the largest coastal tower in Sardinia, built at the end of the 16th century. In a few minutes you can reach the beaches of the gulf, such as Arborea's, and above all those of the Sinis.

The Sinis and Tharros

Half an hour from Oristano opens the Sinis peninsula, one of Sardinia's most beautiful areas. At its tip, at Capo San Marco, lies the archaeological site of Tharros, founded by the Phoenicians and later a Punic and Roman city, with columns facing the sea, paved streets, baths and a tophet. Just before it is the village of San Giovanni di Sinis, with one of the island's oldest churches, from the early Christian and Byzantine period.

Along the west coast of the Sinis are unique beaches made of grains of white, pink and green quartz: Is Arutas, Mari Ermi and Maimoni. The Cabras lagoon is famous for mullet bottarga, and the Cabras civic museum holds the Giants of Mont'e Prama, the great nuragic stone statues discovered in the Sinis. In early September the Corsa degli Scalzi carries the statue of San Salvatore at a run from Cabras to the village in the Sinis.

Food

Oristano's cooking combines land and lagoon. Bottarga and mullet from Cabras, eels, clams and sa merca, salted fish wrapped in marsh herbs, go alongside the land dishes of the Campidano. The signature wine is Vernaccia di Oristano, a dry amber white aged at length in partly filled casks, reminiscent of sherry. Among the sweets, the mustazzolus of Oristano, pardulas and almond pastries. Oristano is also a city of potters: the tradition of decorated jugs and tableware lives on in the workshops of the centre.

Around Oristano

Besides the Sinis, from Oristano you can easily reach the Romanesque basilica of Santa Giusta, three kilometres away, the Montiferru with Santu Lussurgiu and its woods, the nuragic sanctuary of Santa Cristina at Paulilatino, the Losa nuraghe and Lake Omodeo, and the Roman baths of Fordongianus. To the south, the reclaimed land of Arborea, with its colonial-style houses and orderly fields, tells another story of 20th-century Sardinia.

Getting there

Oristano is on the SS131 Carlo Felice highway, about an hour and a half from Cagliari and from Sassari. The railway station is on the island's main line. The nearest airport is Cagliari, under an hour and a half away; the port of Oristano mainly handles freight. In town you get around on foot and by bike, but you need a car for the Sinis and the beaches. The best time is from spring to autumn, and Carnival, with the Sartiglia, is not to be missed.