Menu
Menu
Nature, history and culture give life to a bike tour of about 40 km, totally flat and therefore suitable for everyone, in the green countryside of Oristano.
An excursion to be appreciated by those who don’t just want to reach a destination, but would also love to know something more about the path that led it to be such. Starting from the old town, you will cross the municipal territory of Oristano and its fractions for a day dedicated to the incredible natural and cultural beauties offered by the local landscape.
The itinerary, which crosses the green countryside of Oristano, ends in Piazza Manno, the ancient piazza de Sa Majoria. The last stretch of the route is precisely the ancient road traveled by the Judges, which from their palace, now incorporated by the prison structures, passed through the “Porta a Mari”, from which they would move up to the church of San Martino, the church of San Pietro and then at the mouth of the Tirso.
The itinerary begins from the Church of the Maddalena, in the fraction of Silì, a sacred building dating back to the Giudicale Middle Ages. Unfortunately, the church cannot be visited, with the only exceptions of “open monuments” events.
Coordinates: 39°54’57″N / 8°36’49″E
The journey continues from Silì towards the hamlet of Massama, crossing a comfortable dirt road. In the small inhabited center of ancient origins, it is absolutely worth it to visit the church of Santa Maria, and most importantly, the adjacent Oratorio delle Anime, dating back to the Giudicale period.
Not too far from these two buildings, along S.S. 292, you may see the remains of the church of San Nicola (or Nicolò).
Coordinates: 39°56’33″N / 8°36’16″E – Santa Maria
Coordinates: 39°56’34″N / 8°36’17″E – Oratorio
Coordinates: 39°56’28″N / 8°36’1″E – San Nicola
With a short transfer on asphalt, you will get to the hamlet of Nuraxinieddu. The southern outskirts of the town, on a hill, is where the chapel of Santa Vittoria stands. In the surrounding area, evidence of human frequentation of the site was found already in the pre-Nuragic and Nuragic ages.
Coordinates: 39°55’52″N / 8°35’42″E
From the countryside of Nuraxinieddu, you will cautiously take S.S. 292 in the direction of Rimedio, and in a few pedal strokes, you will reach one of the many monumental portals which characterize the landscape of the countryside around Oristano, the Portale degli Scolopi. In the land behind the portal, a site has been identified which used to be where the village of Fenugheda stood, before it disappeared in the 17th century. A little further on, still along the same road, there is another portal known as the “Portale dei Carmelitani”. From here, you will go back a few tens of meters in order to take a dirt road on your left, reaching the northern outskirts of Donigala Fenughedu.
Coordinates: 39°55’55″N / 8°35’23″E – Portale Scolopi
Coordinates: 39°55’45″N / 8°34’59″E – Portale Carmelitani
While pedaling, you may see on your right the ruins of the Villa Loffredo (Coordinates: 39°56’15″N / 8°34’26″E), which can be accessed through a monumental portal. As you leave it on your right, you will carefully cross a second section of SS 292, at the portal of the Pisano olive grove (Coordinates: 39°56’17″N / 8°34’17″E). This leads to the church of Santa Petronilla, dating back to the Middle Ages, the only survivor of the disappeared village of Gippa, a site already frequented in the Nuragic era. This is evidenced by findings of basalt blocks around and under the church (Coordinates: 39°56’22″N / 8°33’50″E). Going around the parvis area, shaded by centuries-old olive trees, you will take a dirt road towards Solanas.
This small hamlet is the location of the old church of San Pietro, dating back to the 16th or 17th century.
It is hypothesized that a previous church building was built on this site, based on indirect medieval sources. In front of the church, you may see the old wash house of the village.
Coordinates: 39°55’56″N / 8°33’19″E – Chiesa
Coordinates: 39°55’56″N / 8°33’17″E – Lavatoio
From the churchyard of the church of San Pietro, you will take the dirt road leading back into the municipal territory of Oristano, towards the Remedy, crossing the most spectacular portal in the province of Oristano, that of Vitu Sotto. Dating back to about 1780, it rises in its majesty, showing the curvilinear course of cornices and volutes, in a continuous exchange of trachytic stone – gray and pink – building it.
Coordinates: 39°55’37″N / 8°34’21″E
Always by pedaling on a dirt road, you will get back to the limits of the municipal area up to the asphalt of the S.P. 1 for Torre Grande which you will cross in order to reach the right bank of the Tirso river, and descend into the floodplain along the old Second World War fort (Coordinates: 39°55’20″N / 8°34’52″E). Some remains of the two previous bridges are visible exactly where the new bridge crosses the Tirso, the Roman/medieval bridge, and the one from the Savoy period. (Coordinates: 39°55’9″N / 8°34’58″E).
After safely crossing the bridge on the cycle path, by going through another dirt underpass, you will go up the left bank of the river and pedal towards the mouth. Shortly before arriving, follow the dirt road which, along the San Giovanni canal, leads back to the city. Leave the church of Santu Giuanni de Froris hidden by trees on the right, and you will reach the Cuccuru de Santu Pedru cemetery area, near which the medieval church of San Pietro de Claro stood. Its stones are now part of the cemetery wall.
The church of San Martino (extra muros) is one of the places where the very history of Oristano was written: it was here that Leonardo Cubello signed the surrender of the city to the Catalan Aragonese troops of Martino the Younger in 1410. The church is of medieval origin, and in the nineteenth century, the monastery became the new hospital of the city after the abandonment of the old one, located within the walls, at the church of Sant’Antonio Abate.
Coordinates: 39°53’55″N / 8°35’18″E
