Oristano

History (1070 A.D.)

Centuries before the town of Oristano was born, Phoenicians, Punic and Romans had both inhabited and utilized the area identifiable as the Sinis Peninsula. A secure harbour protected from the ever merciful Mistral, brackish water rich with fish and inland fertile fields and large pastures.

These are all characteristics, which make this area unique within the whole island. Nevertheless, the signs of the Phoenician/Punic civilization are scarce and this is due to the wear and tear of time and to the re-utilization of the pre-existing man-made structures by the next settlers.

Looking at the way Tharros was built, the ruins of its temples, the shops and the well paved roads and finally the rich necropolis, it is possible to guess that this was a site/settlement, which held great importance.
In the end, the continuous Saracen incursions forced the population to move further inland, so leaving the rich and developed coastal town.
One of the hypotheses on the origins of Oristano is that the town has been built with the very same stones of Tharros. Whether this is true or not, it is proven that the town of Oristano was built on 1070 A.D., the exact year in which Tharros was officially abandoned by the governmental and ecclesiastic authorities, which moved to Oristano.

THE SAY: “Portant de Tharros sa perda a Carros”, this local and traditional saying, which literally translates as: ‘they carry stones from Tharros with carts’, symbolically alluding to the re-utilization of the old walls of Tharros to edify the new town.

The Judicial Period

The internal riots which took place around the first millennium were tearing to pieces the already obsolete Byzantium Empire and gave the possibility to Sardinians to free themselves from the central power and to create a new form of independent government.
In the first half of XI century four judicial governments were then created: Torres-Logudoro in the North-West, Gallura in the North-East, Cagliari in the South and Arborea with Tharros as its capital.

Arborea is undoubtedly regarded as the judicial government, which had a fundamental role in the History of the island, differentiating itself from the others for its judges, both models of coherence and keen to unify Sardinia under a unique powerful government.
The other three governments in fact decayed politically under the Pisans, Genoese, and later the Aragonese domination, leaving the judicial government of Arborea as sole bulwark of Sardinian independence.

Eleanor of Arborea and the Charta de Logu

The judge was the authority, who administered a Logu (territory), which was further divided in parishes, which then divided its villages accordingly.
Numerous judges followed one another to the head of the government, but one in particular became almost a legend: the judge Eleanor of Arborea. Cited by some historians (Cattaneo) as ‘the most splendid character of Italian history’, Eleanor came to power after the killing of her brother by the hands of his soldiers, who had been probably instigated by the current allied Aragonese, who wanted to conquer the powerful region.

From here the history bears some resemblance with the most famous Joan of Arc. Indeed Eleanor, having recognized the imminent danger, commanded the remaining loyal soldiers and marched against the rebels, reducing them to obedience and re-gaining the occupied territories. On her return to Oristano she proclaimed herself Judge. In the meantime, Eleanor’s husband, who was on a political mission at the Aragonese Court, was captured.

Instead of planning a counter-attack against the ‘infamous allied’, Lady Eleanor reinforced her power, not with the use of strength though, but by gaining the trust and admiration of her people. Few months later, with the break of the alliance, Eleanor, together with her liberated husband, declared war against the Aragonese Kingdom defeating them once and for all on October 2nd, 1385.

At the end of the war, Eleanor concentrated on administrating her country and one of her very first contributions was the issuing of the ‘Charta de Logu’, a system of penal, civil and procedural measures, which codified laws and customs, which had been handed on orally until that time. The same Charta will later inspire the Albertine Statute, which will be used as a constitution for the Kingdom of Italy and which will be later abolished by the Fascist regime of Mussolini.

Eleanor died in 1403 and the history/legend says that at that time she was helping her fellow citizens infected by the plague, which would have later decimated the population of the whole island.

1409: The End of the judicial governments

After the fall of the Arborea’s judicial government, Leonardo Alagon was the last free governor of Oristano, who in an already declining kingdom was able to defeat the enemy and to win valorously in the Uras battle. Nevertheless, eight years later, in the famous battle of Macomer in the 1478, the unfortunate marquis was finally defeated by the Aragonese and with him the Kingdom of Arborea. The independence gained by Sardinia was definitely lost.

1974: Oristano becomes a Province

The following three hundred years of Aragonese and Catalan ill-government shadowed the splendour of the previous judicial period.
Nowadays, what used to be the glorious judicial palace has been demolished to give space to the prison in Piazza Mannu.
In 1974, the town of Oristano became the capital of the province, but only a memory has remained of the previous glorious past and of the dreams of power of its judges, in the shadow of the great wealthy palaces and of the powerful defensive towers.

The Areas within the province

The province of Oristano is ideologically divided in seven districts, which are indicative of different geomorphologic areas: Alto Campidano, Sinis, Guilcher, Barigadu, Montiferru, Marmilla and Arci Chighine.
When reading this guide you will naturally associate each of these areas with a specific landscape and environment, so for example the Sinis peninsula will represent the marine area, the Campidano will stand for fertile plains and the ancient volcano Montiferru for reliefs partially sloping towards the sea.

This territorial heterogeneity has obviously had some influences on the inhabitants of the various areas, who have developed either pastoral, agricultural, fishing or trading based societies, in the attempt to optimize the use of the land in which they live.
At present, the extreme Western region of the province (the coastal area), seems to be the one best equipped to welcome tourists and consequently more advanced in the development of this activity.

Nevertheless, also the rest of the hinterland is gradually valuing and promoting its own historical, ethnic and craftsmanlike heritage. In the end, if you are interested in a ‘rustic’ but relaxing trip, away from mass tourism, the villages of the mountain arch, which start from Montiferru and stretches to the Marmilla region, are ideal.

DO: Try and visit the local tourism offices (Pro Loco or Presidi) in each village. They are an endless source of information.

DON’T: Start a trip without stoking up and equipping yourself with a sufficiently detailed map. Petrol stations and road signs are not always easy to find.