Terralba - Terralba

Terralba
Cathedral Square
StateItaly
RegionSardinia
TerritoryCampidano of Oristano
Altitude9 m a.s.l.
Surface49.8 km²
Inhabitants10.116 (2019)
Name inhabitantsTerralbesi
Prefix tel 39 0783
POSTAL CODE09098
Time zone UTC 1
PatronSt. Peter (June 29)
Position
Map of Italy
Reddot.svg
Terralba
Institutional website

Terralba is a citizen of the Sardinia, in the province of Oristano.

To know

It is part of the cities of wine.

Geographical notes

Terralba is located in the historical region of Campidano of Oristano and borders on Arborea, Arbus (UP), Guspini (UP), Marrubiu, San Nicolò d'Arcidano is Uras.

Background

From the origins to the abandonment of Neapolis

The presence of man in the territory of Terralba dates back to the Neolithic period.

Already in the seventh millennium BC, to which the oldest evidence of settlements and human activities in the Terralba area date back, the first colonizers found an ideal natural environment for settlement thanks to the proximity of Monte Arci where obsidian could be found with great facility and the fish-rich ponds of Marceddì and San Giovanni.

Obsidian, the mineral from which the Neolithic people obtained tools and weapons and which favored the birth of many human settlements in the area. Several settlements remain in the territory of Terralba from the Neolithic presence, including traces of ancient villages and many ancient tombs.

In later times the nuragic populations also developed in the Terralba plain, as in the rest of the island. The ruins of seven settlements in the municipal area remain from that period.

According to tradition, the history of Terralba began in a village on the shores of the San Giovanni pond called Osea and founded around 1000 BC. The continuous pirate raids forced its inhabitants to leave the village and move to the nearby city of Neapolis, founded by the Phoenicians and then occupied by the Carthaginians, becoming one of the most important seaports of the Sardinian-Carthaginian trade. The city was surrounded by walls, equipped with four corner towers and aqueducts in which rainwater was collected as in Carthage.

In 238 BC the Romans occupied Neapolis making it flourish as one of the largest inhabited centers in the area, further expanding it to an extent of about 34 hectares and embellishing it according to Roman use, with monuments and friezes such as the Great Hermes of the late imperial era.

Inhabited until the Byzantine period, later Neapolis was also conquered by the Saracens and the surviving inhabitants decided to move a few kilometers inland.

From the foundation of Terralba to the Spanish domination

Abandoned Neapolis after yet another Saracen raid, the inhabitants moved inland and around 1017 founded Terralba. There are no official documents that support the actual reason for the abandonment of Neapolis in favor of the new settlement of Terralba, but many scholars agree that the internal position of the new town would have guaranteed greater safety to the inhabitants and would have been more suitable for agriculture and pastoralism. The ruins of Neapolis are still present near the coast on the San Giovanni pond, not far from today's hamlet of Marceddì.

The name Terra alba appears for the first time in 1048 in a document where a bishop named Francesco is mentioned and in a document dating back to the period of the Giudicato of Arborea dated 15 October 1102 it appears instead in the Terralba version as it is known today.

Terralba in the Middle Ages belonged to the Giudicato of Arborea included in the curatoria of Bonorzuli of which it became the capital in replacement of Neapolis, abandoned following the continuous Saracen raids.

The diocese was also transferred to Terralba, when also the bishop Mariano I left Neapolis and with it also the wooden pulpit, the crucifix and the statue of St. Peter, patron saint of Neapolis before, patron of Terralba now arrived in Terralba.

The elevation of Terralba to a bishopric allowed the town to flourish economically and become a reference center for the district. This period coincided with the construction of the church of San Pietro, whose construction began in 1144. In 1503 the seat of the diocese was moved to Ales by Pope Julius II della Rovere.

Terralba depopulated by a period of famine and epidemics is granted as a fief to the Carroz as part of the curatoria of Bonorzuli around 1413.

In 1527 Terralba suffered the sack of the Barbary pirates, who pushed for the first time inland, who put the town to fire and sword and kidnapped the inhabitants who were unable to escape. In 1580 Terralba was still in ruins and so it remained for another 22 years until 1602 when a timid repopulation began.

It will be necessary to wait until 1640 for a true rebirth of the village, when the baron of Uras, in whose fief the town was located, promoted its repopulation to acquire its feudal rights, so the town was united to the barony of Uras dependent on the marquisate of Quirra, fief of the Centelles.

In 1668 Terralba counted 1250 inhabitants. Three towers built along the coast for defense from Saracen pirates survive today, Torre Vecchia, Torre Nuova and Flumentorgiu.

From the Kingdom of Sardinia to the 21st century

In 1718 the Spanish domination was replaced by the dominion of the House of Savoy in the whole island.

In the eighteenth century the territory of Terralba was still an immense marsh in which malaria raged and of which the area held the unenviable primacy in the whole of Sardinia. Despite this, in 1761 the population reached 1600 inhabitants.

We will have to wait until 1895 to start devising the great reclamation, which will finally start at the end of 1918 and which in the following decade will transform the marshy plain of Terralba into 20,000 hectares of arable land, but it will not have fully solved the problem yet. malaria.

In 1840, with the abolition of the feudal system, the town was redeemed to the Osorio de la Cueva, the last feudal lords and successors of the Centelles, for which it became a municipality administered by a mayor and a municipal council, and from 1859 to 1927 Terralba was the capital of the homonymous district, in the district of Oristano in the province of Cagliari.

In 1872 the Terralba plain was also reached and connected to the rest of the island by the railway. The nearby Marrubiu-Terralba-Arborea station opened to coincide with the passage of the first convoy on April 9, 1872.

In 1928 (we are in the Fascist period) the Mussolini Village was founded in the new reclaimed territories. In the same year, with the Royal Decree N ° 2230 signed by Vittorio Emanuele III, the neighboring municipalities of Marrubiu and San Nicolò d'Arcidano are merged with the municipality of Terralba, becoming hamlets.

In 1930 the Mussolini Village was elevated to an independent municipality. This division of the territory marks for Terralba the almost total loss of the newly reclaimed territories and a drastic reduction of the municipal territory by more than half compared to before 1928.

In 1947 San Nicolò d'Arcidano annexed in 1928 to the municipality of Terralba was again elevated to an independent municipality.

In 1948 also Marrubiu annexed 20 years earlier to the municipality of Terralba was again elevated to an independent municipality following the revolt of the inhabitants of 10-13 December 1947 against the union with the municipality of Terralba and culminated during a demonstration with the murder of Terenzino Trudu .

Also in 1948, the construction of the Cantina Sociale di Terralba marked the start of the post-war economic recovery, giving way to many other commercial and artisanal activities.

The complete eradication of malaria from the Terralba plain with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, which sponsored a large disinfection work through the infamous DDT insecticide, is also in the post-war period.

Until July 16, 1974, the date on which the Province of Oristano was established, Terralba belonged to the Province of Cagliari.

On Monday 18 November 2013, Terralba suffers the flood caused by the intense rains discharged by the cyclone "Cleopatra". The streets of the lower part of the town are invaded by about one meter of water, which in the basements reaches almost three meters.

In 2017 Terralba is the second inhabited center of Oristano for inhabitants after the capital Oristano.

How to orient yourself

Fractions

Neighborhoods

The Terralba neighborhoods are:

  • Funtanedda
  • Su Cungiau de is domus beccias
  • San Ciriaco
  • S'Isca


How to get

By plane

From the following airports it is possible, thanks to several car rental companies present, to rent a car to reach Terralba.

By car

  • Who comes from the north and the center Sardinia you must take the SS 131 Carlo Felice and take the north exit "Marrubiu-Terralba".
  • Those coming from southern Sardinia must take the SS 131 Carlo Felice and take the south exit of Terralba.

On boat

The Marrubiu-Terralba-Arborea station

From the ports of Cagliari, Porto Torres, Olbia-Isola Bianca e Golfo Aranci.

On the train

By bus

You can reach Terralba from Oristano with the ARST lines 401 is 444 (with the latter Terralba can also be reached from Cagliari).

How to get around


What see

Churches

The co-cathedral of San Pietro
  • 1 Co-cathedral of St. Peter. Co-cathedral of San Pietro (Terralba) on Wikipedia St. Peter's Co-Cathedral (Q17626077) on Wikidata 
  • 2 Church of San Ciriaco. 
  • 3 Regina Pacis Chapel. 

Museums

Archaeological sites

The territory of Terralba, thanks to its fertile sandy soils, has been inhabited since the Neolithic; in particular the testimonies found in some sites located in the countryside (including San Giovanni, San Ciriaco, Bau Angius) refer to the culture of Ozieri. Other testimonies that have come to light near the church of San Ciriaco have given the same name to a regional facies that can be traced back to the Recent Neolithic. Although the Terralbese area also offers numerous testimonies of the Nuragic civilization, most of the known testimonies date back to the period of Punic domination. Thanks to the multi-year research of Gino Artudi and Sandro Perra, followed by the systematic investigations of the team led by Peter Van Dommelen, it was possible to identify the remains of numerous rural settlements (the period of greatest attendance is between the end of the 5th and 3rd-2nd centuries BC ), whose density is unmatched by any other Punic context in the Mediterranean. Evidently the fertile territory of the Terralba plain was part of an organized program of agricultural exploitation, in which perhaps the cultivation of the vine was of primary importance.

In the countryside, in 1960, in the locality of Pauli Putzu, ten Roman tombs with funerary equipment were accidentally found. The trousseau reflected the social and economic condition of the deceased and was intended to accompany him on the long journey into the afterlife; it included a coin, a lamp, the tear trough, plates and amphorae. The devastating work of the grave robbers, however, caused irreparable damage to the necropolis. In fact, only 33 artifacts have been recovered and are now kept at the Terralba State Middle School.

During the modernization of the catechetical house in the Santa Maria district, a Roman-era tank belonging to an old farm was found.

Events and parties

  • Fire of saint Anthony. Simple icon time.svgJanuary 16 and 17. As in other areas of Italy, even in Terralba on the night between 16 and 17 January it is traditional to celebrate by burning bonfires of shrubs dedicated to Saint Anthony, patron of fire.
In ancient times, tradition had it that the ashes of the bonfire, stored in bags, served as amulets to ward off diseases and people who bring trouble.
In the days preceding the feast, young people use to go around the houses to ask for offerings or gifts of food to be consumed on the evening of the feast by the bonfire. 
  • Carnival. Simple icon time.svgShrove Tuesday in February or March. Its main feature is represented by allegorical floats from neighboring countries. Traditional are the zeppole distributed by the Pro Loco during "su mattisi de coa", that is Shrove Tuesday and the malloreddus alla Campidanese are distributed after the Sunday parade. 
  • San Ciriaco. Simple icon time.svg8 August. Santo from which the district of the same name takes its name and to which the church of the district is dedicated, the second in the town of Terralba.
The celebrations and festivities take place on 8 August, with a large procession of the saint through the neighborhood and the typical market with stalls of all kinds that animates the last stretch of Via Roma, the main street of the neighborhood. 
  • Bonaria Festival. Simple icon time.svgOn Friday and Saturday following August 15th. It was born spontaneously in August 1924, when a group of faithful spontaneously gathered to organize the first edition of this festival.
The religious rites in honor of the Madonna di Bonaria begin on the Friday following the week of August 15th.
The simulacrum is transported on a traditional boat placed on a cart and escorted on foot by the faithful for about 15 km, from the church of San Pietro in the center of Terralba to the church of Marceddì.
On Saturday the saint is carried in procession through the streets of the hamlet and on Sunday the traditional procession takes place at sea with numerous boats of faithful following that of the saint and which ends with the throwing of a wreath of flowers on the water.
Marceddì mullets are traditional, cooked and eaten by the faithful in the traditional "statzusus" or canopies.
The saint remains in Marceddì until the following Saturday, when she is accompanied by the faithful with the reverse walking procession and the "Return of the saint" is celebrated. 


What to do


Shopping


How to have fun

Shows

  • 1 Civic theater, Freedom Square (Located in the former Casa del Fascio). Here conferences, theatrical performances and screenings are organized. 

Night clubs


Where to eat

Moderate prices

  • 1 Yogurtlandia, Via Marceddì, ☎ 39 0783 1780643. Yogurt, creperie, smoothie and juice bar. 
  • 2 Torky, Via Cairoli 31, ☎ 39 392 1616205, @. Simple icon time.svgTue-Sun 18: 00-22: 00. Pizzeria. 
  • 3 Two Elle, Via Roma 41, ☎ 39 347 5709695. Simple icon time.svgTue-Sun 17: 45-22: 00. Pizzeria. 
  • 4 Crazy Pizzas, Viale Sardegna 65, ☎ 39 0783 81489. Simple icon time.svgMon-Sun 17: 30-24: 00. Pizzeria. 
  • 5 Ali Baka Kebab, Viale Sardegna 72, ☎ 39 371 3450926. Kebab shop. 
  • 6 From Bobò, Freedom Square, ☎ 39 347 3092033. Simple icon time.svgThu-Mar 17: 00-24: 00. Sandwich shop. 
  • 7 The Muse, Via Baccelli 67, ☎ 39 350 0257215, @. Simple icon time.svgMon-Sun 17: 30-22: 30. Pizzeria. 
  • 8 The terrace, Via Coghinas, ☎ 39 0783 83253. Simple icon time.svgTue-Sun 17: 30-23: 00. Pizzeria. 

Average prices


Where stay

Average prices


Safety

Useful numbers


How to keep in touch

Post office



Around


Other projects

  • Collaborate on WikipediaWikipedia contains an entry concerning Terralba
  • Collaborate on CommonsCommons contains images or other files on Terralba
1-4 star.svgDraft : the article respects the standard template contains useful information for a tourist and gives brief information on the tourist destination. Header and footer are correctly filled out.