Places in Tempio Pausania, Sardinia

Tempio Pausania is a beautiful, old stone town located in the Gallura region of northern Sardinia, and it is the administrative capital of the province of Olbia-Tempio. The road to Tempio Pausania snakes up through increasingly wild and open countryside that hides numerous medieval remains and tiny country chapels, like San Trano and Santo Stefano.

The road leading from Luogosanto to Tempio gets steeper and twister as it climbs towards the Monte Limbara offering unspoilt beauty and a wide variety of flora and fauna. The Gallura region reveals an authentic side of Sardinia, leaving behind the glittering and fashionable atmosphere of the Costa Smeralda to reach the timeless region of its archaic soul.

Ancient stone places like Luogosanto, Luras, Tempio and Aggius are dominated by an incredibly fascinating landscape of cork-oaks, granite rocks and thick Mediterranean greenery. Evidences of prehistoric settlements are scattered all over the area and a short drive to archaeological spots are highly recommended.  A number of constructions are found along the Arzachena-Luogosanto road, with the tomb of the giants of Li Lolghi, the necropolis of Li Muri, made up by circles of vertically set stones and the Nuragic temple of Malchittu.  Tempio Pausania  is a stone town, framed by the mount Limbara peaks, its old city centre is superbly preserved with tiny lanes running through ancient granite houses with colourful flower pots on their windows.

The life here is slow, silent and peaceful. That’s the beauty of Tempio, ready to be enjoyed. Just outside the town the striking beauty of the imposing and evocative Limbara massif (1300m), an area rich in luxuriant Mediterranean bush together with cork-oak woods, caves, hollows and visible rock formations modelled by millennia of erosion.

Its slopes are rich in springs providing high quality, low mineral content water. The Monte Limbara is reachable along the SS 392 towards Oschiri and Coradoreddu district where hiking and walking trails are available up to the peak.

Almost intact as if defying time, nuragic age monuments are visible in the area like the Nuraghe Majori and the Giant Tomb of Pascaredda, the latter infused with mystic atmosphere. Within a short drive towards the village of Luras, the magnificent thousand-year-old olive trees  of “Santu Baltolu” in Carana are set in an enchanting landscape on the shore of the Lake Liscia, where the granitic mountains and the lake surface draw a beautiful scenery.

The oldest of them, known by the local inhabitants as “s’ozzastru”, has an height of 9,3 m from the ground, a girth of about 12 m and it is thought to be almost 4,000 years old, surely one of the oldest trees in Europe and as such it was proclaimed a Natural Monument to admire in awe.