Villanovafranca

Overview and Geography

Villanovafranca (Biddanoa Franca in Sardinian) is a hill town of 1,194 inhabitants situated at an elevation of 300 meters on the border between the Marmilla subregion and Trexenta, near the Flumini Mannu river. The municipal territory features marked elevation changes east of the Marmilla hills.

The name derives from Villa Nova (“New Village”, created as a planned settlement following depopulation) combined with Franca (“tax-free” or “exempt”), reflecting financial tax exemptions offered by medieval feudal lords to attract settlers.

Economy and Local Culture

• Agriculture & DOP Saffron: Agriculture anchors the local economy, specializing in durum wheat, olive oil, wine, almonds, and DOP Saffron (Zafferano di Sardegna). Local bakeries are renowned for traditional almond-paste pastries.

• Linguist Vincenzo Raimondo Porru: Villanovafranca was the birthplace of Vincenzo Raimondo Porru (1773–1836), a philologist, priest, and scholar dubbed the “Legislator of the Sardinian Language” for authoring the Saggio di grammatica sul dialetto sardo meridionale (1810) and Nou dizionariu sardu italianu (1832–34).

• Festivals and Events:

  • Sagra della Pecora (January 20): Held during the Feast of San Sebastiano, featuring public mutton dinners.

  • Festa di Sant’Isidoro (Third Sunday of May): The town’s most popular festival, featuring processions of flower-decorated tractors, traccas, and horses.

  • Sagra della Mandorla (May): Almond pastry festival in Piazza Aldo Moro.

  • Patronal Feast of San Lorenzo (August 10): Religious and civil celebrations.

  • Festa della Madonna della Salute (Third Sunday of September): A pilgrimage festival originating in WWI when wives and mothers vowed a procession for the safe return of soldiers.

  • Sagra dello Zafferano (First Sunday of November): Saffron food and exhibition fair.

History

Settled since proto-Nuragic times (Su Mulinu fortress, Tuppedili nuraghe), Villanovafranca developed into an organized township during the 13th and 14th centuries.

In the late 14th century, the territory was disputed by the Carroz Counts of Quirra. In 1477, following military conflicts between Dalmazio Carroz and Pietro de Besalù, it was incorporated into the Barony of Las Plassas. On May 6, 1541, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V granted the fief to the Spanish Açor Zapata family, who held feudal authority until abolition in 1839. Formerly part of the Isili and Cagliari provinces, it joined Medio Campidano in 2001 and South Sardinia in 2016.

Architecture and Main Sights

Historic Center

• Parish Church of San Lorenzo Martire: Built in Pisan-influenced style in 1591 (dated by a central keystone bearing the saint’s effigy) and expanded in 1773. It features a tripartite cream-plastered façade, a cross-shaped layout, a dome, a square bell tower, and 1789 marble altar furnishings (high altar, balustrade, pulpit, and baptismal font) by master marble sculptor Giovanni Battista Spazzi.

• Oratorio delle Anime (S’Omu ‘e S’Ossia): Adjacent to the parish church, this 16th-century barrel-vaulted chapel predates the parish church and sits over historic underfloor tombs. It is entered through a stone arch gateway that historically led to the town’s old cemetery.

• Church of San Sebastiano Martire (La Cresiedda): Built in the late 16th century, featuring a limestone façade with finto-marble motifs, 17th-century Corinthian columns, a shell-shaped niche with caryatids, a late-18th-century pipe organ, and an 18th-century carved wooden high altar.

• Church of San Francesco da Paola: Originally dedicated to St. Catherine in the mid-17th century, transferred to the Minim Friars in 1787, and restored in the 1980s. Features rusticated limestone door framing and a sinuous Baroque cornice.

• Civic Archaeological Museum “Su Mulinu”: Housed in the 19th-century Monte Granatico building on Piazza Risorgimento. Displays roughly 500 local artifacts spanning from prehistory to the Early Middle Ages. Includes a tactile section with Braille panels and a full-scale replica of the prehistoric stone altar discovered inside the Su Mulinu nuraghe.

• Civic Tower & Town Hall: Located on Piazza Risorgimento, housing municipal offices and a memorial plaque dedicated to linguist Vincenzo Raimondo Porru.

• Sports Infrastructure: Features a Mini-Pitch sports field (for mini-basket, mini-volley, and calcetto) and a multi-purpose sports complex on Via Giuseppe Verdi.

Archaeological Sites and Surrounding Area

• Su Mulinu Nuragic Complex: A Nuragic sandstone fortress located at 285 meters elevation overlooking the Marmilla plain. Displays three distinct construction phases: an early corridor bastion, a trilobed sinusoidal bastion with lower-level cells, and a outer wall containing Tower F (equipped with 11 loop-holes).

  • Prehistoric Stone Altar: During the First Iron Age, the fortress became a sanctuary; excavations in 1988 led by archaeologist Giovanni Ugas uncovered a unique tuff altar carving that replicates the central keep’s plan, carved with a crescent moon and a basin. The site remained in use through Punic, Roman, and Byzantine times.

• Nuraghe Tuppedili: A single-tower square-plan Nuragic fortress set atop Tuppedili Hill (339 m), which yielded Attic Greek, East Greek, Punic, and Roman ceramics.

• Other Nuraghi: Includes the ruins of Paberi I (single tower), Paberi II (Sa Barraca de Is Dragonis), and Trattasi (protonuraghe).

• San Lorenzo Municipal Kartodromo: A 5-hectare motor-racing complex featuring a 1,056-meter track, 120-seat grandstands, and official homologation for international kart, auto, and motorcycle competitions.

• Rural Church of Nostra Signora della Salute: Built in 1989 on the outskirts of town along the SP5, adorned with stone sculptures by local artists Romano Porcu and Gesuino Murgia.