Oristano (Aristanis in Sardinian) is an Italian town of 31 753
inhabitants, the capital of the province of the same name, located
in central-western Sardinia.
It is located in the northern
part of the Campidano plain, in the region called Campidano di
Oristano. Provincial capital since July 16, 1974, the city has an
ancient history; of medieval origin, it was for a long time the
capital of the Giudicato di Arborea.
Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta (1130). Destroyed in a siege, it was
rebuilt under the reign of Mariano II. Of the original structure, only
the bases of the apse and bell tower remain and the Rimedio chapel,
which houses some medieval sculptures.
In 1733 the 13th century
Gothic Cathedral was demolished to make room for a Baroque one. The
Archivietto Chapel belongs to the 17th century reconstruction. Inside
are kept the relics of Saint Archelaus.
Tridentine Seminary, built in
1712.
Ancient Rectory of the Cathedral.
Church of San Francesco,
in neoclassical style, the current church is the work of the Cagliaritan
architect Gaetano Cima in 1835
Church and monastery of Santa Chiara,
the complex was built in 1343 by Judge Pietro III of Arborea on a
pre-existing church dedicated to San Vincenzo. It is a Franco-Gothic
style building with a single nave and a square apse. It is one of the
few remains of medieval art in Oristano.
Carmine church and convent.
Work of the architect Viana, it was built on commission of the Marquis
d'Arcais in a Rococo style. It is one of the best examples of Rococo
architecture in Oristanes.
Church of the Holy Spirit, the church is
mentioned in some documents from the 16th century, but only an
archaeological investigation could accurately reveal the most ancient
origins of this building, which according to some hypotheses would date
back to the Byzantine age.
San Sebastiano, also known as San
Sebastiano outside the walls, was the only medieval church, with San
Martino, which was located outside the city walls, was frequented mainly
by pilgrims and farmers. The current building was built between the end
of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century and is considered the
oldest parish church in the city's villages.
Basilica del Rimedio, is
located in the hamlet of Donigala Fenughedu, and is a pilgrimage
destination during the days of N.S. of the Remedy on 8 September.
Church and monastery of the Capuchin nuns, the entire religious complex
of the church and the religious house of the Capuchin nuns was built in
1739 by the wealthy citizen of Oristano Pietro Ibba.
Church of the
Blessed Virgin Immaculate and Capuchin convent, the church and the
adjoining convent were built in 1608 thanks to the munificence of the
nobleman from Oristano Domenico Paderi. The complex immediately built
outside the city walls, on the road leading to the church and convent of
San Martino, has hosted the Capuchin fathers since its origins.
Church of San Martino, mentioned in the will of Ugone II of 1335, was
presumably built in the 13th century. and shows carved in a capital, the
coats of arms with the poles of Aragon next to the eradicated tree of
Arborea.
The Church and Convent of San Domenico were built in 1634 by
the Oristano nobleman Don Baldassare Paderi. The entire complex hosted
the Dominican friars until 1832.
Oratory of the Purissima, ancient
oratory chapel of the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception known
as the Purissima, documented since the 17th century.
Church and
hospital of Sant'Antonio Abate (Hospitalis Sancti Antoni), mentioned in
the will of Hugh II of Arbore in 1335, is located within the walled city
and was used for the care of the sick. The church of Sant'Antonio
annexed to the hospital, of Gothic origin, has a bell tower with two
lights and is oriented towards the west.
Church of San Mauro Abate
San Giovanni dei Fiori, initially called San Giovanni di Fuori, was one
of the small country churches of the medieval city
Saint Efisio.
Baroque church dating back to the 18th century, it is located in the Su
Brugu district
Saint Lucia. Church currently in neoclassical style,
it is located in the historic center not far from the church of Santa
Chiara.
Church of San Saturnino, rebuilt in 1901, is superimposed on
an ancient church building named after the Cagliari martyr San Saturno.
Inside it offers a high altar made of fine Tuscan marble.
Cemetery of
San Pietro, the construction dates back to 1835 by Monsignor Giovanni
Bua, Archbishop of Arborense.
Church of Santa Petronilla, the
building of medieval origin, has undergone numerous interventions over
the centuries. Of Romanesque origin documented as early as 1341, it has
a single nave layout. Inside, the ancient wooden simulacra of the saint
who is the owner of the church are preserved. It is located in the
hamlet of Donigala Fenugheddu.
Church of Santa Maria Maddalena, the
first mention is found in the will of Ugone II of 1335 and its
construction in a style that still sees motifs linked to the Romanesque
but with Gothic insertions can be dated to the beginning of the 14th
century, it is located in the hamlet of Sili.
Church of San Nicola,
Oratorio delle Anime, is located adjacent to the 15th century parish
church. dedicated to Santa Maria Assunta. Its layout dates back to the
early Middle Ages, while the subsequent interventions are from the
Romanesque period, probably from the first half of the 13th century, and
is located in the hamlet of Massama.
Church of San Paolo Apostolo.
Located in the neighborhoods of Toràngius and Axi Anadis, it was built
in the nineties and was maintained by the Franciscan friars of San
Francesco until 2013.
Church of St. Joseph the Worker. It is located
in the new area of Sa Rodia.
Church of the Sacred Heart. Located in
the area that takes its name and which was previously called "Corea", it
is a reinforced concrete church dating back to the sixties and
seventies.
Church of San Giovanni Evangelista. It is located in the
San Nicola district. It is the most recent church.
Palazzo Campus Colonna, owned by the municipality, houses paintings
created by artists who made the history of the Sardinian twentieth
century.
Palazzo degli Scolopi - Piazza Eleonora - seat of the
Municipality
Palazzo Giudicale (former prison), the first sources
that testify to its existence are found in the chronicles of the arrival
in Oristano of the Archbishop of Pisa, Federico Visconti in 1263. News
confirmed in the will of Judge Ugone II in 1335, which locates it on one
side of Piazza Maioria, today's Piazza Manno.
Palazzo d'Arcais -
Corso Umberto (via Dritta) - seat of the Province
Eleonora's house,
along Via Parpaglia.
Archbishop's Seminary - via Duomo
Palazzo
Falchi - Corso Umberto (via Dritta)
Palazzo Carta - Piazza Eleonora
Casa de La Ciudad - City square (Eleonora square)
Bastogi Palaces
(SAIA Palaces), a clear example of rationalist architecture in Oristano
- via Cagliari.
Palazzo So.Ti.Co. is still at the center of numerous
controversies due to its urban planning contrast with the overlooking
Tower of San Cristoforo - Piazza Roma.
Tolu Palace - Via Vittorio
Emanuele II
Portal of Vito Siotto, is located in the hamlet of
Donigala Fenugheddu.
On Ponti Mannu, Oristano Nord entrance.
Cinta Muraria, the wall circuit of the city of Oristano, stretched
for a distance of 2 km along the current via Mazzini, via G. M. Anjoy,
via Solferino, via Cagliari, via Diego Contini and piazza Roma,
strengthened by crenellated defensive towers in correspondence with the
doors and 28 quadrilateral turrets[citation needed].
Tower of Mariano
II or Tower of San Cristoforo or Port'a Ponti. Built in 1290, it was one
of the two main entrance gates to the ancient city walls, and is located
in what is now Piazza Roma. The twin Tower of San Filippo or Port'a
Mari, which was located in the current Piazza Manno, was demolished in
1907, when in a serious state of abandonment and dilapidation it was
judged "of no artistic or cultural value" by the Ministry of public
education[citation needed].
Portixedda tower
Gran Torre, near the
village of Torre Grande.
Statue of Eleonora d'Arborea, was created by the sculptor Ulisse
Cambi and the architect Mariano Falcini, and its inauguration took place
on 22 May 1881.
Monument to the fallen of all wars, in Piazza Mariano
IV
Oristano is located on the central-western coast of Sardinia, facing the gulf of the same name at the mouth of the Tirso.
The gulf, approximately oval in shape, is
closed by Capo Frasca to the south and Capo San Marco to the north.
Oristano therefore remains quite exposed to westerly winds. The
dominant wind is the mistral, which blows from the NW and reaches
storm intensity for a few days a year, with gusts of over 100 km / h
on Capo Frasca. These events arrive relatively dampened in Oristano
(around 80 km / h) thanks to the moderate shielding of the two
heads, whose maximum altitude is 80 meters. The major reliefs in the
area are Montiferru to the N (1015 m above sea level) and Monte Arci
to the East (815 m above sea level), too far away to provide
adequate shelter from the north and east. The city therefore remains
exposed to all quadrants, in particular to the sirocco which,
blowing from the south east, can freely cross the entire Campidano
plain from Cagliari to Oristano. Of the Campidano plain, Oristano
occupies the NW strip, which appears to be the most fertile thanks
to the fine sediments carried by the Tirso river, on whose left bank
Oristano rests at 5 meters above sea level. The Tirso is the longest
river in Sardinia, it crosses it in the SW direction along the wide
valley of the Goceano to flow into the Gulf of Oristano, about 4 km
as the crow flies from the city.
The climate, temperate in
the middle latitudes, has a dry and hot summer season and a cool and
rainy winter (Mediterranean climate). The intermediate seasons have
mild and pleasant temperatures.
Oristano is characterized by
high humidity rates, which make it a very humid city, especially in
summer. Despite this it is frequently ventilated thanks also to the
presence of sea breezes that mitigate the heat in summer.
The
rainy season is concentrated between October and March, while the
average rainfall is 580 mm / year. Sometimes the dense mists common
in the middle Tirso valley manage to penetrate the plain, reaching
the city. Winter frost is not uncommon, especially in the suburbs of
the city where, in cold winter nights, the mercury column manages to
go a few degrees below zero.
Although it is about 18 km away as the crow flies and
is located in the province of Medio-Campidano, the reference station
for the province of Oristano is located in Capo Frasca which,
together with Capo San Marco, form the Gulf of Oristano. Being
located one step away from the sea, the minimum temperature values
in the winter months (significantly higher than in the inner city)
and the maximum summer temperatures are affected above all,
definitely mitigated by the immediate proximity to the sea.
Based on the climatic averages of the 1971-2000 period, the average
temperature in the coldest month, February, is +10.4 ° C, while that
of the hottest month, August, is +25.0 ° C; on average there are
zero days of frost per year and 21 days with a maximum temperature
equal to or higher than +30 ° C. The extreme temperature values
recorded in the same thirty years are −4.8 ° C in January 1981 and
+41.6 ° C in August 1999.
The average annual rainfall is 529
mm, distributed on average over 71 days of rain, with a minimum in
summer and a moderate peak in autumn.
The average annual
relative humidity records the value of 81% with a minimum of 78% in
June, July, August and September and a maximum of 85% in January; on
average there are 10 days of fog a year.
Below is the table
with the climatic averages and the absolute maximum and minimum
values recorded in the thirty years 1971-2000 and published in the
Climate Atlas of Italy of the Meteorological Service of the Air
Force for the same thirty years.
The name of the city of Oristano could derive from the Roman nobleman Aristius. The Byzantine geographer Giorgio Ciprio in the 7th century mentions the Arhistianés límne (pond of Oristano) while the oldest mention of the poleonym is in an arboreal map of the early 12th century where it is mentioned as Aristanis. In Spanish it is Oristán and in Catalan, Oristany, names still in use and widely documented even in the written language.
The territory of Oristano has been inhabited by man since the
pre-Nuragic and Nuragic periods.
In the 8th century BC as part of
the Phoenician colonization of the coast, the cities of Tharros, in the
territory of Cabras, and Othoca, in the territory of Santa Giusta,
arose. Further traces of Punic and Roman attendance follow.
The Giudicale Aristianis, built near the ancient Phoenician-Punic and
Roman city of Othoca, became an important center in 1070, when the
Archbishop of Arborea Theoto moved the bishopric there, abandoning the
now decayed Tharros, and the Judge Orzocco I erected it as the capital
of the Giudicato of Arborea. This transfer was probably due to the
Saracen incursions that raged on the western Sardinian coast in those
years, and to which the city of Tharros was subject. The new city was
instead protected from possible enemy incursions by natural barriers
such as the Santa Giusta ponds and the bifurcation of the Tirso river,
which before arriving in Oristano divided into two branches, one of
which passed to the north and the other to the south of the city.
The Oristano Middle Ages were characterized by numerous wars between
the Giudicato of Arborea and the other Sardinian kingdoms. In 1195 the
Giudicato was invaded by the Judge of Cagliari Guglielmo di Massa who
spread over the capital spreading destruction; Oristano was sacked and
burned and the ancient cathedral seriously damaged.
The city,
however, was soon renovated by the successive Arbori judges of the 13th
and 14th centuries who improved the ancient fortifications, erected by
Judge Barisone, through the construction of approximately twenty-eight
towers and the raising of the city walls up to ten-fifteen metres.
Oristano at the time had around 10,000 inhabitants and, including the
suburbs of San Lazzaro, Nono, Maddalena and Vasai, reached an area of
around 27 hectares. The spindle shape of the city was typical of the
medieval Italian fortified city. The judicial palace was located in what
is now Piazza Manno, in the past called "Sa Majorìa".
In 1324 the
Giudicato of Arborea allied itself with the Catalan-Aragonese, after the
latter landed on the island with the intention of conquering the Pisan
possessions for the creation of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and then went
on to fight against them for a long time. The long and bloody war
culminated in the attempt at hegemony over the entire island made by the
judge Mariano IV (1347-75) and his children Ugone III (1376-83) and
Eleonora (1383-1404), regent of his children; the conflict devastated
the whole of Sardinia, as well as the two sides, also due to plague
epidemics; Oristano itself was involved in war activities and besieged,
unsuccessfully, by Pietro Martinez de Luna in the summer of 1368.
The Giudicato of Arborea was the longest-lived of the Sardinian
Giudicato, and ceased to exist in 1420, when the last sovereign of
Arborea, William III of Narbonne, ceded what remained of the ancient
kingdom to the Aragonese Crown for 100,000 gold florins.
Then
acquired by the Aragonese, it was transformed into a marquisate in 1420
in favor of Leonardo Cubello, descendant of Ugone II of Arborea.
Leonardo Alagon, last marquis of Oristano, attempted to reclaim his
territories from the Viceroy, but in 1478 in Macomer his army suffered a
heavy defeat and the marquisate was definitively annexed to the Kingdom
of Sardinia. The title of Marquis of Oristano was assumed from that date
by the kings of Aragon and still today belongs to the kings of Spain,
currently Philip VI of Spain. From that moment Oristano, elevated to the
rank of royal city on 15 August 1479, followed the common history of
Spanish Sardinia.
Between 1542 and 1572 the coastal tower, today
called Torre Grande, was built to defend the landing place in the gulf
of Oristano and to protect the mouth of the Tirso which could be used to
reach the city. The task of supervising the foundation was Don Peroche
de Salazar, captain of Oristano from 1530 to 1543, who was its first
captain and alcalde.
On 21 February 1637, during the Thirty
Years' War, a French fleet of forty-seven vessels, under the command of
Henry of Lorraine, Count of Harcourt, landed near Oristano and sacked
the city for about a week. Not wanting to face the militias of the
Kingdom of Sardinia who came to the rescue of the attacked city, the
French hastily retreated, also abandoning the standards which are now
kept in the cathedral. From 1720 Oristano, like the rest of the island,
passed to the Savoy dynasty.
In April 1921 Davide Cova, Emilio Lussu, Camillo Bellieni and other
Sardinian veterans of the First World War founded the Sardinian Action
Party in the city.
In 1927 the municipalities of Massama,
Nuraxinieddu, Silì and Santa Giusta were added to the municipality of
Oristano as new hamlets. The latter returned to being an independent
municipality in 1947.
Breaking away with its surroundings from
the Province of Cagliari, it finally became the capital of the newly
formed Province of Oristano on 16 July 1974.