Territory

Orgosolo is a municipality of about 4,300 inhabitants in the province of Nuoro, in the Barbagia di Ollolai region of Sardinia, a true museum town, famous for its ancient customs and the extraordinary natural environment that surrounds it.
Known as the town of murals, it is one of the largest municipalities in inland Sardinia.
Its territory is characterised by the rugged and wild plateau of the “Supramonte”, 50 square kilometres of uncontaminated nature with the primeval forest of holm oaks among the largest in Europe: Sas Baddes .
Downstream from the town, the high hills of Sorasi and the sunny plateau of Locoe extend, lands that have always been suited to agriculture, mainly vines and olives. From these two areas, lands of granite nature, come the grapes for the production of wines.

Orgosolo is also the town of murals. The first mural was born almost by chance and represents an “unbalanced scale of justice”. Created by a group of Milanese anarchists “Gruppo Dioniso” who had taken refuge in Sardinia during the years of student protests (1968).

However, it was in the early 1970s that the phenomenon of muralism was born in an “organic” way on the initiative of a young teacher from Siena, Francesco Del Casino, who had moved to Orgosolo, where he had accepted the position of art teacher in the local middle school. Del Casino's work, supported by his students and imitated by other artists, transformed the grey walls of the houses of Orgosolo into colourful depictions: the themes were very different from topics of social denunciation, to political, cultural, environmental issues, etc., a kind of “wall newspaper” to which the people of Orgosolo remain very attached and which is visited by thousands of tourists every year.

Another peculiarity of this center is the production of silk, probably one of the highest expressions of Orgolese craftsmanship.

The activity of silkworm breeding and weaving, mainly aimed at making “Su Lionzu”, the headdress of the characteristic female costume of Orgosolo, once common to many women, is today the prerogative of only a few families.

The same silk, the product of a centuries-old tradition similar to the cultivation of Cannonau, is used to tie and embellish the labels of some of the winery's wines.