Porto Torres

Porto Torres is one of the most important locality founded by the Roman people, during their permanence in Sardinia. It is possible to admire numerous testimonies of that period at the Antiquarium Turritano museum, a part from the National "Sanna" Archaeological Museum of Sassari. The modern city has been constructed in successive ages over and around the ruins of Turris Lybisonis, which can still be visited. The importance of this port has not changed: it is one of most popular in Italy. The archaeological area comprises an important thermal zone of the II century B.C., but it is also possible to visit other thermal ruins of Pallottino and Maetzke at few hundreds meters, the roman bridge of the I century A.D. that permitted to cross the river Mannu.

In Porto Torres, the basilica of Sant Gavino is the most majestic example of Romanesque style in Sardinia. This basilica was built on the ruins of two previous churches (an early Christian one, dedicated to the Sant martyrs Gavino, Proto and Gianuario) in the middle of the XI century, unfortunately it has been modified from some debatable restorations in the course of the centuries but today it appears to have recovered in a good way. The two apses (one oriented towards east, the other to the west) are for sure special elements of this church: a rare example in Italy, the only one in Sardinia. Very interesting is also the crypt on the basement.

The geographic position of Porto Torres is the ideal to arrive to one of the most evocative beach resort of the north Sardinia. Among these we cite Stintino and the beach of Badesi. At about twenty kilometers, instead, there is the Coral Riviera.