The third urban area of Sardinia, after Cagliari and Sassari, Oristano (the ancient Byzantine Aristanis) arose as fortified center against Saracen invasions. The main city of the Giudicato di Arborea, one of the most important independent Sardinian states, Oristano preserves precious monuments of its past, which make the city enjoyable and interesting. Four good reasons for visiting Oristano? Here they are

1) The city still retains several traces of the ancient city walls erected to defend the town, the most important of which is perhaps, in the current Piazza Roma, the imposing Tower of Mariano II (or T Torre di S. Cristoforo), one of the two main entrance gates of the city, erected at the end of the thirteenth century;

2) The cathedral of S. Maria Assunta is one of the most beautiful Baroque churches of Sardinia; the original structure dates back to the beginning of the twelfth century, but it remains only the bases of the apse and the bell tower and the Chapel of the Remedy, which houses some medieval sculptures, as the building was shot down in the 18th century to make room for the new church;

3) A pleasant surprise is the visit to the Antiquarium Arborense, the most important museum in Oristano, which well documents the city's history and also hosts archaeological finds from the nuraghi of the area and the city of Tharros, an archaeological site not far from Oristano, as well as important Spanish artisan works of the 15th and 16th centuries;

4) Not to miss the two most characteristic festivals of Oristano, Sartiglia and Pariglia; the first is an equestrian carousel of medieval origin and of Aragonese matrix, which is holds the last Sunday and the last Tuesday of carnival; the second, which takes place in the queue of the first, is a spectacular race in which the knights perform in various acrobatic evolutions on galloped horses.