Borghi Autentici
Borghi Autentici in Sardinia
14 towns
Sardinia holds 14 Borghi Autentici sites inside our catalogue. They cluster in the Oristano, Nuoro, and Sassari provinces.
The three most recognised in our catalogue are Sardara, Galtellì, and Aggius. 11 more towns carry the mark alongside them.
Sardara
Province: Sud Sardegna · 163 m
A Campidano thermal town where Nuragic well-temples, Roman Aquae Neapolitanae and a hilltop Arborea castle share the same hot springs.
Galtellì
Province: Nuoro · 49 m
Grazia Deledda's 'Canne al vento' set: a 2,354-resident Baronia borgo in Sardinia's northeast, with the entire centro recognised as the Parco Letterario Grazia Deledda for being the literal setting of her 1913 Nobel-trajectory novel.
Aggius
Province: Sassari · 514 m
A Gallura granite village at 514 meters under the Monti di Aggius, with the largest ethnographic museum in Sardegna and three centuries of bandit history.
Aritzo
Province: Nuoro · 800 m
A Mandrolisai mountain village at 800 meters in chestnut and hazelnut forest, where snow once travelled out in straw and came back as lemon sorbet.
Bolotana
Province: Nuoro · 472 m
A Marghine hill village at 472 meters between mountain and Tirso valley, with a Welsh railway engineer's villa hidden in a four-hectare exotic garden.
Cuglieri
Province: Oristano · 428 m
A Montiferru town at 428 meters, with the first minor basilica in Sardegna above it and the ruins of Punic Cornus below.
Orosei
Province: Nuoro · 19 m
A small Baroque town at 19 meters in the Cedrino valley, two kilometers from the limestone gulf whose southern coves are reached only by boat.
Samugheo
Province: Oristano · 380 m
Sardinia's textile-weaving capital: a 2,757-resident Mandrolisai borgo where the MURATS regional textile museum, the Tessingiu woven-art biennale, and an active community of weavers on traditional looms keep a knot-stitch tradition alive.
Seneghe
Province: Oristano · 305 m
An olive-oil village on the eastern slope of Montiferru, 25 km from Oristano, that doubles as Sardegna's poetry capital each September.
Masullas
Province: Oristano · 129 m
A Marmilla village at 129 meters where a 17th-century Capuchin convent houses fossils, minerals, and volcanic history.
Montresta
Province: Oristano · 405 m
A Planargia hill village of 438 people founded in 1746 by Maniot Greek families who left Corsica for new land in Sardinia.
Orroli
Province: Sud Sardegna · 550 m
A Sarcidano village at 550 meters on the Pranemuru basalt plateau, home of the Nuraghe Arrubiu, the only five-tower nuraghe in Sardinia.
Santu Lussurgiu
Province: Oristano · 503 m
A Montiferru village at 503 meters where the Carnival horse race runs through a steep stone street and saddlery has been made since 1923.
Sedini
Province: Sassari · 295 m
A 1,245-resident Anglona borgo built around a prehistoric rock-cut tomb complex carved into a limestone outcrop inside the village itself, later reused as a Romanesque church and now a small museum.
From elsewhere in Italy
Five more towns to discover
Cicala
Province: Catanzaro
A village of 887 people at 829 meters, founded in 1616 by farmers asking for land.
Fossombrone
Province: Pesaro e Urbino
An inland Marchigiano town on the Metauro river, layered over a Roman colony with a Renaissance ducal court rising above it.
Bagnoli del Trigno
Province: Isernia
The 'Pearl of Molise', a 637-resident borgo built into and around a massive limestone outcrop above the Trigno valley, with a medieval castle rebuilt on its summit.
Varenna
Province: Lecco
A fishing village founded in 769 on the Lecco arm of Lake Como, with a steep grid of streets falling into the water.
Rocca di Botte
Province: L'Aquila
At 750 meters on the Carseolani slopes between Abruzzo and Lazio, the birthplace of an eleventh-century hermit and a fief of the Colonna.