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THE PROVINCE OF ORISTANO

ITALIAN VERSION

Lunar landscapes and megalithic architecture; enchanted beaches and rocky contours; marshes and volcanic massifs; stone-built houses and ancient castles; woodlands and a network of small rivers as well as a large resevoir. Oristano Province is rich in fascinating natural scenery as might have been laid down by the “10th”Muse – to say nothing of its archaeological sites and townships.

Is ArutasTHE PROVINCE OF ORISTANO

Open air film sets which have excited the fantasies of directors such as Michael Curtiz, Antonello Grimaldi, Salvatore Mereu, Gianfranco Cabiddu e Davide Manuli. From the cliffs of Capo Mannu and Santa Caterina di Pittinuri to the sandy vastnesses of Torregrande and Arborea and Sinis, the  Pallosu cove and the sparkling Is Arutas quartz beach. Not to mention the Mediterranean bushland and the ancient forests of Montiferru and Mount Arci as well as the ever-changing water of the Tirso valley.
Mountains and the sea, stupendous foreshortenings and wide, spell-binding panoramas along 135 km of coastline. There are marshes and ploughland, towns and villages, farms and riding-schools covering an area of 3,040 square km (population 169,000) in western Sardinia. Oristano Province is careful to preserve the magic of its ancient traditions. Its displays of horsemanship (the Sartiglia in Oristano during the winter and the Ardia at Sedilo in early summer) are as famous as the Corsa degli Scalzi (the barefoot race at Cabras) and the province's carnivaltime masks.There are other equestrian events and races – for example the Carrela 'e Nanti at Santu Lussurgiu and the Cursas a Sa Pudda as well as the Cursa de Sa Loriga at San Vero Milis, which richly demonstrate the area's authentic and uninterrupted links with centuries old traditions.

The region is also rich in more “official” history, the memory of the reigns of the Judge-Sovereigns Mariano IV and Eleonora d'Arborea being particularly significant. Then there are the churches and wayside sanctuaries, the coastal towers, the ancient obsidian mines, the nuraghic sites while modernity is enhanced by the artistic events held at the Sound Park at Riola Sardo.
Its towns and cities. From Oristano, the provincial capital of Byzantine origins, which grew up next to the earlier Phoenician settlement of Othoca with its cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, to the Tower of Mariano at Bosa, a town nestling along the banks of Temo river, its medieval quarter hugging the slopes of the Serravalle hill crowned by the ancient Malaspina Castle. Throughout its length and breadth, the province is full of spectacular surprises. The dreaming miles of an often secretive-feeling countryside could belong to another age, an earlier world, while its built-up corners are alive with an evocative scenery one associates with a Mediterranean people.

Oristano province intends to encourage the creation of films and advertising by making available its offices and logistic services in the territory to the people interested.

For info and details: Sardinia Film Commission: 0039 070/6064764


Road to FordongianusSardinia's strategic position in the heart of the Mediterranean offers favourable climatic conditions that make the territory of Oristano Province particularly interesting and suitable for outdoor shooting, on the plains and in the coastal area, but also on the volcanic ranges of Mount Arci and Montiferru. Mild temperatures and low rainfall, with long daylight hours, during most of the year; the possibility of making the most of the rare snowy landscapes next to deserts and lagoons and then the beaches and the “Mexican” atmosphere of the village of San Salvatore di Sinis form a favourable combination, almost a multiform set designed for the Seventh Art.

How to get there:

Oristano Province can be reached by land, along the 131 – the main road of the Island – (and the 131 bis).

Aiports:

- "Mario Mameli" Cagliari-Elmas: www.sogaer.it (92 km from Oristano, an hour and twenty minutes on the 131)

- Alghero-Fertilia: www.aeroportodialghero.it (140 km along the 131 bis and the 131 up to Oristano)

- Olbia-Costa Smeralda www.geasar.it/ita/aeroporto Information Office: 0789.563444 - e-mail: Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. E' necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo. (182 km on the 131 DCN or 172 km on the 199, then the 597 to access the 131 up to Oristano)

Oristano Province can also be reached from the ports of:
Cagliari (in the South-East) and Ernesto Campanelli.
Porto Torres (North-West)
Olbia (North-East)
Arbatax / Tortolì (on the East coast)

There are also rail, bus and coach services connecting the main sea and airport routes.

For sea links from / to Sardinia, the main shipping companies are:
Tirrenia (www.tirrenia.it) and
Grimaldi Lines


ACCOMMODATION
The notably holiday ethos of seaside resorts, along with the charm of its landscapes, the historical and economic importance of towns and villages means that Oristano Province has a wide availability (and variety) of accommodation, in hotels (around sixty, for a total of more than 3,500 beds), campsites, hostels, residential hotels and B&Bs.
As for the catering, the numerous trad-mod restaurants and farm holidays in the territory offer, in addition to the rigour of the international cuisine, the deliciousness of the local cooking – which are sustained by catering agreements and services.


Road Alghero - BosaROADS
The road network within Oristano Province includes 1,575 km of state, provincial and municipal roads.
An ideal itinerary may start from Bosa going in the direction of Tresnuraghes along the south bank of the river Temo, up to its mouth and to the river port of Bosa Marina, a small tourist village built around the 17th century church of Santa Maria del Mare, with its distinctive red domes. A stone pier connects the mainland to the Isola Rossa, dominated by an ancient Spanish tower. If you go on southwards you can reach the Turas beach, then if you cross the Nigolosi valley you arrive at Porto Alabe (in the territory of Tresnuraghes).
Among the most evocative and “panoramic” routes is the stretch, almost 46 kilometre long,  connecting Bosa to Alghero, with its views of one of the most important habitats at both a Sardinian and a national level.
A first stretch of road curves inland, then overlooks the Drucche Abba beach (a path leads to the deserted Cala Rapina in half an hour). Then discover the pink and grey tuff cliffs by the Argentina Tower, among islets and pebbly coves and the Tentizzos beach, made of red trachyte pebbles, which stretches among smooth rocks. A staircase further north leads to the sandy Cala Cumpultittu, and then to the Porto Managu coastline. Opposite you will find the homonymous islet.
Rough and wild the nature of the Capo Marargiu, with its jagged promontory of trachytic tuffs and red trachytic rocks. The road continues north in the territory of Villanova Monteleone, in the direction of Alghero. Here your eyes open upon panoramic views, with spectacular sunsets and perspectives on the infinity, between the sky and the sea, along the coasts of Cuglieri and Tresnuraghes up to the Island of Mal di Ventre (Cabras, Oristano province) and, on clear days, up to the Capo Caccia (Alghero, Sassari province) to the north.
The views from the late 19th century Macomer-Bosa railway-line are also interesting and noteworthy. Thanks to the tourist project “Green Train for Sardinia” it is possible to ride through and visit territories rich in vegetation and uncontaminated corners of the inland on board ancient carriages hauled by steam locomotives, perhaps sharing the emotions evoked by the British author D. H. Lawrence, in his book “Sea and Sardinia” (1921).


Putzu IduMARINE LOCATIONS
If you follow the profile of Sardinia's west coast, some of the most famous reso
rts offer an overview of the possible landscapes, which are extremely varied and lively, between stretches of sand and inaccessible cliffs, from Cuglieri to Narbolia, to San Vero Milis, up to the Sinis Peninsula and the Gulf of Oristano.
To the north of Santa Caterina di Pittinuri is the evocative rocky inlet of the Riu e Sa Ide, which culminates in an underwater cave, between snow-white platforms and the beach of the maritime village, protected by a small bay with a rocky floor and a slipway for small boats. A famous beach is that of the Archittu with its natural arc of sandy shore amid reefs and rocky spots of indescribable beauty. Between the Archittu and Is Arenas beach is the small inlet of Tower del Pozzo, also known as “la Balena” (the Whale) for the following strange effect: on the promontory of calcareous rock where the tower rises, on rough sea days, water jets resembling the blowing of whales spring from the cavity the shape of a well. With lovely natural pools and wonderful seabeds.

Is Arenas beach – formerly Sa Praia Manna – is exposed to the mistral wind and for 6 km it is fringed by a pinewood between the Tower del Pozzo and that of Scab'e Sali in Narbolia. The boundary between the beach and the pinewood is defined first by Is Benas pond and the coastal Tower of Scala 'e Sali, then by the Crastu Biancu cliff and finally by the Rocca Tunda, a beach with very fine sand, protected from the winds by Punta Su Pallosu. Then you will find the small Su Pallosu cove, also sheltered from the winds, from which you can sail for the Island of Mal di Ventre. Four miles from the Capo Mannu, the Island of Mal di Ventre or “Maluentu” (bad wind in the Sardinian language) is uninhabited but is home to birds, rabbits and turtles and offers the visitor stunning beaches, from the Cala Valdaro to Cala dei Pastori, Cala del Pontile and del Nuraghe, Cala del Relitto, Cala Tramatzu, Cala Maestra and the small beaches to the southwest.

If you follow the coastline you will find the Mesa Longa beach, between the Capo Mannu cliffs and Su Pallosu, with coarse ochre sand and an outcropping reef. The spectacle offered by nature is great in the Capo Mannu, a rocky promontory marked by its coastal tower and small lonely beaches with the power of the sea sculpting waves which are famous among surfers coming from Europe and from all over the world.

In Mandriola (San Vero Milis), famous for its salt marshes and pink flamingos, you can find the  Cala Saline, a shallow-water beach with landingplaces for small boats (and the possibility to sail for the Island of Mal di Ventre). Very fine sand in Putzu Idu, another shallow-water beach, while the maritime village of the Anea Scoada, with its little coves, marks the transition to the rockier coast, with the Tingiosu cliffs. Quartz grains and white seabeds in Portu Suedda on the Sinis peninsula, while in Cabras there is Mar Ermi and in the protected area of Sinis Is Arutas, the beach of sea-polished “rice grains”, is of particular interest.

The wild and uncontaminated Maimoni beach, at the border of the Seu naturalistic oasis, with its Mediterranean maquis and then the Funtana Meiga and San Giovanni di Sinis beach, with its fishing village and the ancient early Christian church.
The Capo San Marco lighthouse marks the beginning of the Gulf of Oristano, between the archaeological area of Tharros and the Spanish tower, then the huge Torregrande sandy expanse, with the village and its coastal tower much frequented in summer and finally, at the centre of the Gulf, the Aba Rossa, with slightly rough sand, but crystal clear waters.


OristanoORISTANO
Examples of baroque and medieval echoes in the city of Eleanor: on the central-western coast of Sardinia, Oristano, with its architectural treasures and memories of an illustrious and glorious past, rises in the plain of Campidano, with the mystery and propitiatory power of the rites linked to the equestrian tournament of the Sartiglia. Its sequences of the vestition and Su Componidori’s androgynous mask, the knights’ race towards the fateful star, the Pippia 'e Maju and the spectacular acrobatics continue according to strict, centuries-old rules and traditions, which are still able to seduce the imagination.
Entry into Oristano was through the Tower of Mariano (or Port'a Ponti), which was beyond the massive walls (the “twin” Tower of San Filippo or Port'a Mari was destroyed in the early 20th century), which preserves magnificent traces of the late 13th century architecture. Even more ancient was the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta (1130), where, although destroyed in a siege and rebuilt at the time of Mariano II, some original parts still survive. The building took its exquisitely baroque forms in the 18th century.

Traces of history in the Portixedda Tower and in Eleanor's Statue between ancient churches and palaces, the Archiepiscopal Seminary and the Casa de la Ciudad between the rococo church and the Carmine cloister, the Churches of San Martino and San Sebastiano outside the walls and the Basilica del Remedio in the Donigala Fenughedu area, the baroque Church of Sant'Efisio in Su Brugu quarter and the 13th century Oratorio delle Anime (Oratory of All Souls) in Massama. There are also Franco-Gothic elements in the 15th century Church of Santa Chiara. Palazzo degli Scolopi and Palazzo d'Arcais, Palazzo Falchi in Corso Umberto (formerly Via Dritta) and other significant buildings show the different faces of the city, up to the 20th century Palazzo Bastogi in the rationalist style.

Case AragoneseThe town centre and the peculiar aspect of outlying areas, such as Donigala Fenughedu, with their strings of low houses looking over agricultural landscapes; the sea with the Torregrande beach and the village of the same name; the rites and shapes of the sacred; the celebration of the Sartiglia that changes the appearance of the city by reconstructing the ancient tracks for the equestrian tournament; streets, façades, monuments, the Gulf and the marshes near the town centre. The Tharros ruins and the picturesque village of Santa Giusta with its Romanesque Basilica, also offer visions of the past and the present.
Images of a timeless Sardinia, able to seduce and excite, still rare and therefore more interesting in the framing of a movie camera. Ancient sanctuaries and contemporary architecture for a journey through the centuries; ancestral memories, among rituals, sounds, voices and colours of the Island.


BosaBOSA
Nestling between the sea and the mountains in the valley of the river Temo, Bosa combines the charm of a still wild nature with the feudal architecture of Sa Costa, between the two stairways of “s'iscala 'e sa rosa” and “s'iscala 'e s'ainu” leading up to the Castle of Serravalle; little streets covered with rounded cobbles connected by trachyte steps, with the 19th century façades of the palaces in Corso Vittorio Emanuele (formerly Sa Piatta, from platha), sign of the advent of a new, monied aristocracy.
Interesting views reveal the subsequent stratifications, the evolution of taste and building techniques: among old houses and churches – from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to the palatine chapel dedicated to Our Lady de Sos Regnos Altos, with 14th century frescos and the Romanesque Church of San Pietro Extra Muros, along the banks of the river Temo.

Amid signs of modernity it is possible to breathe the atmospheres of an ancient 16th - 17th century village: breathtaking views – which suddenly reveal themselves on the road between Bosa and Alghero, as well as along the hairpin bends leading to Montresta and other neighbouring villages, the coastal towers, the funtana manna and the old riverside tanneries offer a variety of possible locations.

The ancient castle of the Malaspina family, the Argentina Tower and the Tower of Bosa, the historic centre and the prehistoric remains – domus de janas and nuraghes – provide a counterpoint to the wonders of the Isola Rossa (now joined to the mainland) and Turas and the Abba Drukke beaches, Cumpoltittu, Cala Managu and Capo Marrargiu, Bosa Marina, the little coves at the Argentina Tower, to say nothing of reefs and seabeds.
Mediterranean maquis and agropastoral traditions, ancient rituals and festivals – among them is the famous Carnival and of course the Festival of Our Lady of Regnos Altos – have the flavour and magic of a past that is renewed; archaic forms that build on the present with a contemporary sensitiveness to recreate highly imaginative but also deeply realistic atmosphere, full of charm and poetry.


LAKES

Between Barigadu and Guilcer, you will find the Lake Omodeo, Italy's largest resevoir, with the picturesque Romanesque Church of San Pietro di Zuri, rescued from its waters, dismantled and reconstructed stone by stone recreating its original 13th century exterior, with Gothic insertions like the octagonal apse. The village of Zuri in the area of “Murreddu”, on the upland of Ghilarza, beside the charming view of a petrified forest and the nuraghes and submerged dry stone walls, almost seems to guard old and new enigmas; the early 20th century old trachyte dam –  interesting and spectacular – was replaced by that of Busachi, on the River Tirso. The lake shores, in an area rich in springs and mines, are very diverse, including sandy stretches, hills and rocky faces in a landscape dominated by basaltic uplands and rugged mountains.


Santa GiustaTHE WETLANDS

These precious habitats for the flora and fauna are of internationally recognized importance. Ponds and marshes characterize the coastal area of Oristano Province between the Capo Mannu and Marceddì, with a total surface of 6,000 hectares. Peculiar landscapes, poised between the earth and the water, inhabited by rare bird species: these ponds and marshes – which also have a useful economic function as fish farms – represent a peculiarity of the territory. Navigable lagoons, sheets of standing waters evoking remote swamps, fairy-tale or nightmare spaces, difficult to cross: interesting and mysterious places, full of atmosphere – on the threshold of the unknown. Beside the large ponds of Cabras and Mare 'e Pauli, Mistras, Pauli Maiori, the Ena Arrubia and San Giovanni, Marceddì and Corru S'Ittiri, that of Sale Porcus also has the good fortune and secret of disappearing in the summer and reappearing in the autumn.


San Salvatore di SinisSAN SALVATORE DI SINIS or in other words A FILM LOCATION FOR A WESTERN

Mexican visions for a spaghetti western location (almost only a memory now): nearly a mirage amid the traditional buildings of the cumbessias, religious shelters for the faithful during the novena, the traces of the Mexican village set created in the 1960s. From “Django Kills Softly” by Max Hunter (real name Massimo Pupillo) to the painful epic deeds of “God Will Forgive My Pistol” by Mario Gariazzo and Leopoldo Savona, which marked the end of the dream for Arborea Film, without forgetting the cult film “Gerter Colt”, the ruins of a cinematic adventure rise among the mud brick houses and the 17th century church. Not devoid of a subtle ethos, enlarged in the legend – apparently unfounded but picturesque, no less than the impressive evocation of a village in Central America – which one assumes could have been the set for at least one film by Sergio Leone.


FARMS

Arborea: another Sardinia, which recalls the Veneto or maybe Friuli, in the cultivated expanses and plots divided by eucalyptus trees and other “exotic” essences: where the Sassu marsh once lay land reclamations (started in 1919) have evolved into a thriving agricultural economy. For a sort of reverse migration especially the farmers coming from Northern Italy were those who sharecropped those reclaimed lands to grow tobacco, tomato, rice and maize or to raise cattle between Terralba and Marrubiu.
So, among neat and geometric perspectives, such as those of Arborea (formerly Mussolinia) inaugurated by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1928, you will breathe the signs of progress in the splendour of the Fascist ventennio (20 years): not Campidanese farmsteads, but houses and churches with “Tyrolese” roofs, model farms leading to an avant-garde agricultural economy. Another world, or perhaps the positive aspect of a successful symbiosis.
From a film perspective Arborea is the photograph of an era, of an architectural style, a drawing with a clear and recognizable landscape, a human mark on nature. Between the past and the future. Almost a journey through time and history.


San LeonardoPANORAMIC SPOTS

The view that the eye – and therefore the lens – meets from the location of Badde Urbara, on the volcanic massif of Montiferru, in the territory of Santulussurgiu, is really amazing: reachable by taking the road leading to San Leonardo di Siete Fuentes. Once you pass through the small village, you reach the pass (not by chance chosen as headquarters for TV antennas and surrounded by a natural park inhabited by Sardinian mouflon goats) overlooking the Gulf of Oristano up to Alghero. And the slopes of Montiferru on its harsher and “wilder” salient. On the northern side of Montiferru, Cuglieri (Gurulis Nova, near the Phoenician Cornus) offers views of forests and springs, up to beaches and cliffs such as the Archittu. Fascinating too the landscape of Scano Montiferro, among the hills of San Giorgio and Santa Croce and the promontory of Monte Ruinas. Among the panoramic spots, the many towers that dot the central-eastern coast of Sardinia, from Bosa – with the 16th century's Argentina Tower and the Tower of Bosa, on the homonymous Marina – to Tresnuraghes (Foghe Tower, built in basaltic rocks and Ischia Ruja Tower), Cuglieri (the Puttu Tower, the Pittinuri Tower, on the promontory of Santa Caterina and Capo Nieddu Tower).

TharrosIn San Vero Milis, the Mora Tower and Capo Mannu Tower dominating the promontory (in addition to the half-ruined Saline Tower, near Putzu Idu and the 17th century's Scala de Sali Tower) stand out. Cabras, on the other hand, boasts, in addition to the homonymous Cabras Tower at the Peschiera Pontis (Pontis fish pond), the Old Capo San Marco Tower and San Giovanni di Sinis Tower, overlooking the ancient Punic-Roman town of Tharros; finally the Sevo or Mosca Tower, on a promontory near the WWF oasis of Turre 'e Seu. In Oristano, in addition to the Mariano and Portixedda town Towers, the Torre Grande (which gives its name to the sea resort) rises on the beach; and in Terralba, near the old and charming fishing village on a large lagoon with a view up to the Capo Frasca, rises the Old Marceddì Tower.

Travelling inland, you should not forget the Fordongianus spa, dating back to Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD), the first core of the village on a trachytic platform in a wide bight of the river Tirso, with its ancient Roman bridge.
The dam on Lake Omodeo, the largest resevoir in Italy (once in Europe) on the border between the Barigadu and the Guilcier regions: built between 1918 and 1924, the dam of Santa Chiara, designed by Angelo Omodeo, offers spectacular views (not to mention the ancient fossil forest, dating back to the Miocene, submerged by the waters of the lake and visible now only for short periods of the year). Among the panoramic spots of Oristano Province, you should remember the Belvedere of Pau, which opens amid the woods offering a broad view of charming landscapes, on the slopes of Mount Arci. Spectacular is the Isola Rossa at Bosa and the Island of Mal di Ventre – and the Scoglio del Catalano - in front of the Sinis Peninsula (between Is Arenas and the Gulf of Oristano) in a game of mirrors between the sea and the mainland, reflections of sky and stunning sunsets that further coalesce in the multi-faceted lagoon landscape of the wide pond area.


Case AragonesiVILLAS AND ANCIENT DWELLINGS

There are many buildings – houses and palaces, villas, and then churches, shrines and cumbessias: from the renowned Santu Antine shrine in Sedilo to the sculptures at the Sound Park at Riola Sardo, up to Piazza Gramsci in Ales designed by Giò Pomodoro. Among the important buildings you should remember the Malaspina Castle in Bosa (also an important panoramic spot on the town), the Castle of Cuglieri (Casteddu Etzu) and the Castle of Laconi in addition to the Aymerich Palace and park. Also of interest the 16th century's “Aragonese house” in Fordongianus as well as the ancient villages of Busachi, Bidonì, Baratili San Pietro, Baressa, Gonnostramatza and Allai, with the old bridge and the historic palaces of Oristano.


ON THE SEA FLOOR
Crystal clear waters and wonderful seabeds, suitable for scuba diving - like in the Mesa Longa, on the beach stretch between the Capo Mannu cliffs and those of Su Pallosu, with astonishing views like the sunken town of Tharros, in the territory of Cabras. In particular, the marine areas between the Sinis Peninsula and the Island of Mal di Ventre (within a marine protected area) allow you to dive among varied floors, where you can discover the richness of life beneath the surface among fish, shellfish and a lively explosion of colour in corals, madrepores, sponges, polychaete worms. In the Secca di Mezzo the barracudas live and in clear waters you can often watch the convolutions of dolphins and the routes of sea turtles. The Capo Mannu promontory is one of the most important spots for surfers from all over the world.


THE EQUESTRIAN WORLD
Oristano Province boasts a very long tradition of horse breeding, that is why you can find here spectacular equestrian tournaments and races, from the Sartiglia of Oristano (with the acrobatic pairs of horses in a challenge made of speed, skill and harmony) to the Ardia at Sedilo, and the Carrela 'e Nanti of Santu Lussurgiu. There are many farms, riding-schools and stables, with the possibility to find saddle-horses and steeplechasers, in particular belonging to the fiery race of the Anglo-Arab-Sardinian (as well as expert horsemen). Horse riding is a passion and a widespread art practiced at various levels – and with significant results - in Oristano Province.


Santa CristinaARCHEOLOGICAL SITES

Oristano Province houses important remains of a remoter past, essential documents of the evolution of the material culture from prehistoric times - with the remains of the Neolithic and the Nuraghic civilization - up to the 20th century’s rationalist architecture. Among the archaeological sites to indicate (with that arcane magic of places suspended between long-ago events and science fiction hypotheses) we cannot omit the sacred area and the Well of Santa Cristina in Paulilatino and the Nuraghe Losa in Abbasanta. The renowned well temple is fascinating and evocative, an interesting example of the Nuraghic architecture, in a place near Paulilatino named after the ancient Church of Santa Cristina: the mystery of an ancient cult of waters appears from the hypogean structures, surrounded by a double fence (the external with an elliptical shape, the other with its peculiar “keyhole” design) with the staircase leading to the room with a tholos roof where water flows from a perennial water table, lit from the top by a sunbeam or the moon’s reflection. Around the sacred well, the site includes a number of other buildings, like the hut of the meetings, the village and the nuraghe of Santa Cristina, the huts scattered among ancient and vastly gnarled olive trees and other Nuraghic towers.

FordongianusThe imposing and majestic Nuraghe Losa dominates the landscape from the basaltic upland of Abbasanta: the complex is formed by an older corpus with the central keep and surrounded by the trilobate bastion protected by a rampart and a further wall. Within the walls you will recognize the remains of round huts. Refined building techniques and its compact and organized structure, which helped in preserving it from the challenge of centuries, make the Nuraghe Losa one of the most important testimonies to the ancient inhabitants of the Island.
Megalithic architectures, echoes of remote Mediterranean civilizations and cultures but also interesting “photographs” of the geological stratifications and the archaeological heritage of the territory. In Oristano Province there is also the PARC (PaleoARcheoCentro) of Genoni, with a strong emphasis on cultural tourism, an intriguing starting and a reference point for a visionary route among paleontological finds, Prehistory and Ichnusa landscapes, among the structures of the former Convent and the changing landscapes of the Giara.


''La Grazia'' directed by Aldo de BenedettiFILM AND ARTISTS IN ORISTANO PROVINCE

Film memories of Oristano Province. In an ideal filmography one could never exclude “Il richiamo della terra” (1928) by Giovannino Bissi - story of a young boy, the son of a landowner from Ghilarza, torn between the carefree life in the capital and the nostalgia for his Island, evoked from the countryside between Abbasanta and Ghilarza and the Tirso basin, with glimpses of rural life. If in “La Grazia” (1929) by Aldo De Benedetti the interiors by Melkiorre Melis, illustrator and set designer from Bosa, taken from Biasi's sketches, provide a “visual” though fantastic link to the Sardinia described by Grazia Deledda. “Faddjia- La Legge della Vendetta” (1949) by Roberto Bianchi Montero reproduces a photograph of the Island and more precisely one of Riola, among houses of làdiri (mud bricks), fountains and courtyards, rural landscapes, in a portrait of the village in the postwar period, scenery for a 19th century melodrama set in the Oristano area.
Images of the Basilica of Santa Giusta - to remember the “Porziuncula” interiors with the “simplicity” of the Romanesque in an excursus over the Tyrrhenian Sea of the Hollywood on the Tiber can be found in “Francesco d'Assisi” (1961) by Michael Curtiz.

Ugo Tognazzi in ''Una questione d'onore''For “Django Kills Softly” (1966), starring George Eastman (Luigi Montefiori) and Liana Orfei, Max Hunter (pseudonym for Massimo Pupillo) chose the “western” location of San Salvatore di Sinis and for the exterior shots he chose sets near the spectacular village (now semidestroyed and returned to its original aspect).
Sequences of the Ardia at Sedilo in“A Question of Honour” (1966) by Luigi Zampa, starring Ugo Tognazzi, Bernard Blier and Nicoletta Machiavelli: a folkloristic note next to the Mamuthones for a surreal and satirical tragicomedy – much discussed at the time. Views of the coast and the countryside between Santa Caterina di Pittinuri and Oristano for the science fiction “Star Pilot” (1966) by Piero Francisci between alien abductions and experiments to save human civilization. “Garter Colt” (1967) by Gian Rocco, shot in the village of San Salvatore di Sinis, is a Western film from a female point of view and a return to the Island for Nicoletta Machiavelli, “pop” icon of the 1960s Italian cinema interpreting a skillful pistolera (the actress will interpret herself in “Scarabea” - in 1968 in Orgosolo).

Science fiction in Sardegna: ''2+5: Missione Idra''San Salvatore offered the sets for a new “spaghetti western” epic with “God Will Forgive My Pistol” (1966/69) by Mario Gariazzo and Leopoldo Savona – a product of Arborea Film, which aimed at making this village the preferred location for Far West stories.
You cannot miss the “marine” charm of Bosa, the coast and the beautiful bays divided by the Argentina Tower in Attila's life story in “The Technique and the Rite” (1971) by Miklos Jancsò, who found in Sardinia the sets for a vivid metaphor of dictatorship.
Oristano (and Cagliari) but especially Cabras pond and the Sinis Peninsula in “Sa Jana” (1980) by Massimo Pupillo, among the charm of “Baroni in laguna” by Giuseppe Fiori, with Cabras fishermen's struggles and a love story against the background of a Sardinia suspended between the Middle Ages and modernity. Ghilarza, and in particular the religious sanctuary of San Serafino, became the set for “Disamistade” (1988) brought to the screen by Gianfranco Cabiddu making his debut, starring Joaquin De Almeida, Laura Del Sol, Massimo Dapporto and Maria Carta, for a portrait between anthropology and the story of the chronicles of hate and revenge in 1950s Sardinia.
“An Impossible Crime” (2001) by Antonello Grimaldi – from “Procedure” by Salvatore Mannuzzu - hides the clue to the mystery among the alleys, churches and villas in Bosa; in “Sonetàula” (2008) the Sassari director reconstructs the atmosphere of an ancient Nuoro told through the pages of the omonymous novel by Giuseppe Fiori reinventing “his” town amid views of Bosa and Oristano (as well as Tempio and Alghero), in the portrait of a virtual Island.

Montiferro's mines, set of''Beket'' directed by Davide Manuli“Star” cast for “Beket” (2008) – starring Fabrizio Gifuni, Paolo Rossi and Roberto “Freak” Antoni next to Luciano Curreli, Jerome Duranteau and Luciano Maludrottu – and “The Legend of Kaspar Hauser” (2012) starring Vincent Gallo, Claudia Gerini, Gifuni, Silvia Calderoni and Elisa Sednaoui by David Manuli who found in the lunar landscapes of Cabras and Oristano Province the ideal locations for surreal films and modern, visionary, dreamlike plots. The unfinished “Eleonora d'Arborea” inspired by the work of Camillo Bellieni, starring Caterina Murino directed by Claver Salizzato (between the Aragonese Tower of Ghilarza and Piazza Eleonora in Oristano) will perhaps be – as intended by the actress – a prelude to a more successful film on the Giudicessa (Judge Princess). “Marine” images of Oristano Province emerge from notes and paths in the memory of “Per Sofia” (2010) by the young director Ilaria Paganelli. A metatheatrical story (for images), “Sympathy for the Lobster” (2007) by Sabina Guzzanti reconstructs in the form of a “mockumentary” the artists' adventure at the historic RaiTre programme “Avanzi” - starring Cinzia Leone, Francesca Reggiani, Pierfrancesco Loche, Antonello Fassari, Stefano Masciarelli and Franza Di Rosa in addition to the islander Gianni Usai - gathered in Su Pallosu, until the production of a show (at the Roman amphitheatre in Cagliari) aimed at bringing to light the tragedy of the Island's fishermen.

Tiberio MurgiaA breeding ground for the big (and small) screen, such as actor Tiberio Murgia (from his debut in “Big Deal on Madonna Street” and “The Great War” by Mario Monicelli to “Holy Money” by Maxime Alexandre), the versatile comedian / singer Benito Urgu and the histrionic actor (and drummer) Pier Francesco “Checco” Loche, Oristano Province is also a land of emergent young people and well-known directors and documentary film makers.
From
Antonello Carboni – author of several documentaries, presented (and award-winning) in Italy and worldwide, to Maurizio Abis (www.bibigula.it), videomaker, producer and director (especially of commercials and TV programmes), to the versatile Oristano writer, screenwriter and director Filippo Martinez (he was also the director of “Sgarbi quotidiani”).
Among the cinema professionals there are also the editor and author Ivo Vacca and Sirio Sechi (Belgian artist of Sardinian origin, born in Oristano, he lives in Narbolia) author of short films – between fiction and animation, commercials and video art –  including “Fattuzzu” (filmed in Bonarcado), “Fadyska” (in Milis) and “Anatomia” (with the students of Ales ITIS “Antonio Gramsci”).

Peter Marcias, the most “European” among young Sardinian directors, was also born in Oristano. He is an author of short films, commercials, documentaries (“Ma la Spagna non era cattolica?”, “Liliana Cavani – Una donna nel cinema”) and feature films: (“Un attimo sospesi” and “I bambini della sua vita” starring Piera Degli Esposti). An ironic and disenchanted look at the traditions of the Island in “S'Iscravamentu Show” by Oristano director Simone Cireddu, author of original and “surprising” short films like “Vecchiaia” and “Morbo”.

Set of ''Terza categoria'' directed by Paolo Zucca. Ph: Francesco PirasA strong emotional and visionary tie with the territory of Oristano Province, between Montiferru and Sinis, emerges from Paolo Zucca's works, director of short films such as the multi-award winning “L'arbitro” (Jury Prize at the Clermont-Ferrand, David di Donatello, already at the Los Angeles Film Festival), promos (for the Montiferru Barigadu Sinis GAL and the Marmilla GAL) and commercials. Coming soon the first clapperboard of ''Terza categoria'', the first feature film by the Oristano artist (joined on the set by Paolo Garau, another young talent), on the same subject of “L'arbitro”, starring Stefano Accorsi. What about the locations? “Almost all the film is going to be set in the Montiferru area: in addition to Bonarcado, Paulilatino, Santulussurgiu and Seneghe”.

ITALIAN VERSION