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THE TERRITORY

Ghilarza is located in the heart of Sardinia, in an area that is both central and easily accessible. Surrounded by hills, fields, woodlands, and small villages, the region tells an ancient story shaped by nature and history.

Within a short distance are remarkable sites such as Lake Omodeo and the Santa Chiara Dam, Nuraghe Losa, the Sacred Well of Santa Cristina, and the Roman Baths of Fordongianus. A landscape rich in memory and natural beauty, best discovered at a slower pace.

GHILARZA

Ghilarza is located in west-central Sardinia, in the province of Oristano, and is easily accessible from the island’s main roads. With a population of around 4,500 inhabitants, the town is characterised by its basalt stone houses built closely together, often with small vegetable gardens at the rear.

Situated at an altitude of 290 metres on the Abbasanta plateau, Ghilarza is surrounded by open grasslands, woodlands, and Mediterranean scrubland interspersed with wild olive trees, almond trees, and oaks. This rich natural environment has encouraged human settlement since prehistoric times, as evidenced by nuraghi, domus de janas, and Giants’ Tombs found throughout the area.

The surrounding territory also preserves Byzantine churches built on earlier sacred sites, the traditional novenari with their muristenes, and important examples of medieval Judical architecture such as the Church of San Pietro di Zuri.

The town also retains traces of the modern era: Ghilarza is known for its artisan traditions and for having been an active cultural centre, with schools, reading circles, and mutual aid societies already flourishing during the nineteenth century.

NURAGHE LOSA

Located a few kilometres from Ghilarza, in the countryside of Abbasanta, Nuraghe Losa is one of the most representative monuments of Nuragic architecture. Easily accessible from the SS 131 road, the complex is remarkable for its harmony, construction technique, and exceptional state of preservation.

Built between the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries BCE using basalt blocks, the site consists of a central tower keep, a trilobed bastion, and an outer defensive wall. Surrounding it lies the Nuragic village, inhabited until the seventh century CE, where Punic and Roman traces are still visible today, including cinerary urns carved into the rock.

Excavated and studied since the late nineteenth century, Nuraghe Losa is an essential destination for anyone wishing to explore the Nuragic civilisation.

SANTA CRISTINA

Less than 10 km from Ghilarza, in the territory of Paulilatino, lies the Sacred Well of Santa Cristina, one of the most extraordinary Nuragic sanctuaries in Sardinia. The site is particularly renowned for its sacred well, constructed between the eleventh and ninth centuries BCE, featuring a perfectly symmetrical staircase and a tholos vault built from finely cut basalt blocks.

The complex also includes a meeting hut, a single-tower nuraghe, remains of ancient dwellings, and a rural church dedicated to Saint Christina, built by Camaldolese monks during the thirteenth century.

Surrounding the sanctuary are the traditional muristenes, pilgrims’ lodgings used during the celebrations dedicated to the saint. Part of the archaeological finds from the site are preserved in the Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum of Paulilatino (Palazzo Atzori), alongside ethnographic objects that offer insight into the traditional agro-pastoral life of the region.

ROMAN BATHS OF FORDONGIANUS

Roman Baths of Fordongianus preserve one of the most important thermal complexes of Roman Sardinia. The baths of the ancient city of Forum Traiani, constructed during the imperial age under Emperor Trajan, stand a short distance from the modern town on the banks of the Tirso River.

The thermal springs, whose waters emerge at a temperature of 54°C, had already been used in pre-Roman times and later during the Roman and Late Imperial periods for therapeutic and healing purposes.

This long tradition is reflected in the two thermal establishments, which include spaces such as the natatio, frigidarium, tepidarium, and calidarium, dating between the first and third centuries CE and still visitable today within the archaeological site.

META ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM OF ABBASANTA

In Abbasanta, within an Aragonese-style house built between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, stands the META Ethnographic Museum. The museum exhibition focuses on the tools traditionally used in local rural and agro-pastoral life from the nineteenth century to the early 1950s.

Carefully restored, the building still preserves many of its original decorative and architectural features, including one of the characteristic porticoes typical of Spanish Sardinian architecture.

LAKE OMODEO AND THE SANTA CHIARA DAM

Lake Omodeo, the largest artificial lake in Italy, stretches a short distance from Ghilarza in the heart of central Sardinia, between the historic regions of Guilcier and Barigadu.

The lake takes its name from engineer Angelo Omodeo, who designed the Santa Chiara Dam — the dam built across the Tirso River in the territory of Ula Tirso that created what was then the largest artificial basin in Europe. Construction of the dam began in 1918 and was completed in 1924, employing around 16,000 workers. It was officially inaugurated on 28 April 1924 in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel III.

Among those employed during the construction works was Emma Gramsci, Antonio’s sister, who worked for the Società del Tirso. Emma died in 1920 following an epidemic that spread through the construction site.

Due to structural instability, the dam was replaced in the late 1990s by the Eleonora d’Arborea Dam, built in the territory of Busachi. During periods when the lake is full, the old dam is partially submerged; when water levels fall, the evocative remains of the caretaker’s house re-emerge from the waters.

VISIT THE ANTONIO GRAMSCI
HOUSE MUSEUM

Book your visit and discover the life of Antonio Gramsci through memories, documents, and personal testimonies.

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