Attractions and Places To See around Prammas/Palmas Arborea - Top 20

Beautiful baroque cathedral with a separate bell tower.

A cathedral, so for Hamburgers: no carousels and beer, just church and stuff. Beautifully colorful inside.

nice square outside a pleasant baroque cathedral with a couple of gothic vestiges

The Franciscan Order has been present in Sardinia since 1230, and the monastery of San Francesco was founded in Oristano as early as 1253. There is no documentary evidence of the Gothic construction of the church. By the early 19th century, it was in serious disrepair, so Archbishop Giovanni Maria Bua decided to rebuild it from scratch rather than restore it. Thus, it was destroyed in 1835, and on February 17 of the following year, the foundation stone of the new church was blessed. It was designed by the Sassari friar Antonio Cano, a royal protégé who had studied at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. The building collapsed on September 18, 1838, before the dome was completed. From the surviving survey of the church-monastery complex and its surroundings, it can be deduced that the dome had an elliptical shape, as is typical for Cano's works. Shortly thereafter, the task was assigned to the most important Sardinian architect of the 19th century, Gaetano Cima of Cagliari. The project, submitted on September 18, 1841, was approved on April 22, 1842, and work then began. The building, rebuilt according to the forms of purist classicism, reopened for worship in October 1847. The current building has a central plan with two chapels on each side and a deep semicircular apse. From the left chapel, a small room leads to the sacristy. The façade, accessible via a wide staircase with eight steps, is preceded by a tympanum-pronaos supported by four columns and two pilasters. All supports are surmounted by Ionic capitals. The façade features a large central portal and two smaller symmetrical side portals. The central body of the building is covered by a large hemispherical dome, standing on a cylindrical drum and surmounted by a polygonal lantern. Source and further information: http://www.sardegnacultura.it/j/v/253?v=2&c=2488&t=1&s=18322

The first document that testifies to the existence of the church dedicated to Santa Maria dates from February 20, 1192. In 1195 the cathedral and the entire city were set on fire and sacked by the troops of the magistrate of Cagliari Guglielmo de Lacon-Massa. The cathedral was badly damaged during the military occupation of the city and in 1228 reconstruction began. The pointed arch building, written documents and two bronze knockers on the portal bear witness to this. In the first half of the 14th century, the Romanesque structure of the Duomo was modified... The transept and the first bell tower were part of the 1300 extension, whose colored majolica dome was only added in the 18th century. In the will of King Hugh II of Arborea of April 4, 1335, the ruler mentions the place where he wanted to be buried: in the Church of the Virgin Mary of Oristano and precisely in the Chapel of San Bartolomeo, which still needs to be completed . Further extensions may have taken place between 1336 and 1349, as the grave of the legal adviser Filippo Mameli, who died in 1349, suggests. During an invasion of French militias that took place on February 25, 1637, the city of Oristano, the churches and especially the cathedral were looted and badly damaged. With the arrival of Sardinian troops from Cagliari and Sassari, the French soldiers decided to leave the city on February 28th to embark again. Pursued by the Sardinian military, the French left behind two pieces of artillery, eleven boats, thirty-six prisoners and eight banners, four of which are preserved on the wall of the main entrance of Oristano Cathedral. The current cathedral, built in the years 1729-1745 to an elegant Piedmontese Baroque design, houses the chapel with the relics of Sant'Archelao, patron saint of the city and the diocese. Source and more information: https://www.comune.oristano.it/it/amministrazione/luoghi/luogo/Cattedrale-di-Santa-Maria-Assunta/

The palace owes its name to the noble title of Don Damiano Nurra Conca, to whom the Savoy king Carlo Emanuele III granted the title of Marquis of Arcais with a diploma dated August 23, 1767. The title Arcais derives from the name of two fishponds, Arcai Mannu and Arcai Pittiu near Zerfaliu, part of the Marquis's real estate assets. The wealthy landowner from Oristano, who learned of the plan to populate the Sinis peninsula by the Kingdom of Savoy to better defend the Gulf of Oristano, always threatened by barbarian invasions, asked the same Viceroy of Sardinia, Alfieri di Cortemiglia, the enfeoffment of the territory by proposing to pay 216,000 Piedmontese lire, equivalent to 254,000 Sardinian scudi. Don Damiano Nurra Conca's residence was built in Corso Umberto, in the heart of the city. His generosity also contributed to the construction of a church and convent, donated to the Carmelite Order on April 27, 1782. The Latin inscription found in the Church of the Carmel indicates the place where Don Damiano Nurra d'Arcais was buried on June 15, 1790. The building has an austere façade, slightly enlivened by the sculpted expositions in red trachyte stone; a decidedly more frivolous touch is given instead by the semicircular balconies that decorate the openings on the ground floor. A bell-shaped dome illuminates the internal staircase, which forks after the first ramp and leads to the upper floors of the building. Currently, the building belongs to the Provincial Administration of Oristano. Source: https://www.comune.oristano.it/it/amministrazione/luoghi/luogo/Palazzo-Arcais/

Portixedda (literally "little door") is one of the smaller structures of the city walls, built between 1290 and 1293 by order of Judge Mariano II de' Bas-Serra d'Arborea. The defensive building controlled the important eastern access point that led to the Villa of Silì, continuing along the ancient Roman path of the Forum Traiani and finally to the Barbagie in the northeast of the island. The 13th-century structure was constructed as a square tower using mixed stone and mortar masonry techniques and was finished with an outer layer of sandstone blocks… In the second half of the 16th century, fears of an invasion of Sardinia by the Ottoman Empire necessitated an operation to modernize the defensive structures. For this purpose, the upper part of the medieval tower was demolished, while the lower part was built into a new massive tower with a circular base. The cut stone of the previous structure was reused, along with other elements such as B. the Machikoles and loopholes, which have been adapted for the use of firearms. Key elements of military development included the creation of a decorative outer bank layer built just around the base to support offensive artillery attacks. Puerta de Levante was the name given to the new solid due to its role of patrolling the road leading east. However, it was more commonly known as Portixedda to distinguish it from the largest doors such as Porta Ponti by its small size… Source: https://www.museooristano.it/view/s/b44c7b15ef994e9ca59e60fc73147784

Oristano Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is the Roman Catholic cathedral of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Oristano. It is built in Baroque style and is located in the historical center of the city. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oristano_Cathedral