Oristano, the town which gave birth to Eleonora d'Arborea

Oristano is province capital since 1974, (the fourth one after Cagliari, Sassari and Nuoro). The economy of its area is chiefly based on agriculture and craft, but in the last twenty years the industrial sector as well, has developped thanks to the impulse given by the new trading port. Oristano is one of the sevn royal towns of Sardinia, together with Cagliari, Sassari, Bosa, Alghero, Castelsardo and Iglesias.

The origin of Oristano are uncertain: the first written references are of VII century A.C. And they are referable to the geographer Giorgio Ciprio. Certainly, a part of the population of Tharros (see disappeared towns) after its destruction, it moved to the flat in the south of the Tirso to found a new village, which raised during the years, until it became the pincipal inhabitated centre of Giudicato of Arborea with the name of Aristanis (in the opinion of some scholars, that toponym should indicate a locality, which is among the sea and the many ponds, of which the area is rich).

Aristanis is on the road, which linked Karales (the present Cagliari) to Turris Lybisonis (nowadays Porto Torres). As the saying goes “portant de Tharros is perdas a carros” (that means “they bring stones from Tharros on the cart”), gets us across that the first buidings of Aristanis were erected by the use of material picked up in large quantities from the, by the time, deserted site.