Park territory

Monte Linas territory

The area of the Parco Culturale Giuseppe Dessì (Giuseppe Dessì Cultural Park) lies between the Provinces of Medio Campidano and Carbonia Iglesias and is located in south-western Sardinia.

The area was included in the curatoria di Gippi during the period of the Giudicati kingdoms and was called “Parte d’Ispi” in the works of the author. Perhaps the name was suggested to him by the ancient Curatoria itself.

The fact that it is a part of the area of the Linas Massif. is a catalyzing element which bestows upon every municipality included in the Park a least common denominator in which many individual conditions exist together as a single unit. Geographically speaking, this is a varied and diversified territory that begins in the inner areas of the Linas, more specifically Villacidro, Gonnosfanadiga and Fluminimaggiore to expand towards the sea crossing through Guspini, San Gavino, until it reaches the coastlines of Arbus and Buggerru.

The imagination of the writer moves and ranges between the wealth of environmental heritage, cultures, tradition, history and “pre-history” that render the island a fascinating world which is also mysterious at times; those places that are apparently fantastic, enriched by literary “magic” and those emotions and suggestions can still be relived in the towns of the Park.

The geography and geology of these places offer generous natural and environmental spectacles of immense impression. The Linas mountain range overlooks them all (Sardinia’s second largest range), filled with a vast heritage of woods and native species. There is still the presence of rare species of flora and fauna that are jealously hidden, clinging onto the tall granite spires, like majestic examples of golden eagles and the Helicrysum montelinasanum.

Geology has dictated powerful laws in this area: the hinterland is very much characterised by the mountains and their traditional productive activities: breeding, wood cutting, sheep farming, agriculture etc. that find their origins in these mountains and are indissolubly linked to them; the coastal area is tied to fishing, beaches and tourism but the most outstanding element is the wealth of resources to be found below the ground and the mining activities related to it that have left deep and very visible traces. Some of the most important mines in Sardinia (Montevecchio, Ingurtosu, Buggerru), so often narrated by Dessì in his pages, are in the area and are rightfully a part of the Park’s cultural elements offered to tourists.

Such offers are quite varied and filled with resources, places and cultural content: small, yet original and singular museums, archaeological sites, mining sites, traditions and customs, songs and dances, the sense of religion and rituals of the peasants, traditional holidays, handcrafted works of every kind (gold, jewellery, baskets, pottery, knives, corks, wood etc), farming products (oil, olives, saffron, oranges, peaches, cherries, bread, sweets, meats and cold cuts, cheese…), environmental sites of extraordinary importance, archaeological and mining sites all of this a part of a cultural system that is, above all, part of the Park’s network.

Arbus

Arbus

The municipality of Arbus is one of Sardinia’s vastest and most diversified. Its territory is a constant alternation of wonderful surprises, an extended descent towards the blue sea.

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Buggerru

Speaking of Buggerru means speaking of mines, of miners and of the sea. The town was founded in 1864, around the activities surrounding the Malfidano mine and soon became an internationally known mining centre.

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Buggerru
Fluminimaggiore

Fluminimaggiore

Fluminimaggiore is a small village that rises along the banks of the Rio Flumini Mannu river, at the foot of a vast valley, surrounded by tall mountains facing the sea.

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Gonnosfanadiga

Gonnosfanadiga is a place with a very significant name, it root, gon, means “hill” and can be found only in the names of some Sardinian places, as old as their very origins.

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Gonnosfanadiga
Guspini

Guspini

Guspini has many tales to tell. Stories of civilizations from thousands of years ago which settles here, leaving profound imprints and monuments of great archaeological and historical interest.

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San Gavino Monreale

The town of San Gavino has a crucially important geographic position that has always made it a crossroads…of history, arrivals and departures.

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San Gavino Monreale
Villacidro

Villacidro

Villacidro is a town located between the Campidano plain and the Linas mountain range. It stands at an elevation of 267 metres a.s.l. and thanks to this position, it is filled with panoramic points that overlook the surrounding plains like authentic terraces.

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