Bessude

In the Meilogu, beneath monte Pelao, Bessude stretches along a valley crossed by two streams. Its medieval lanes, Spanish-arched doorways and painted facades belong to a working Logudoro village with Gothic churches and quiet pastures.

Why it matters

Bessude's historic core took shape around the thirteenth century as a traditional centre of the Logudoro. The village sits in a valley at the foot of monte Pelao, one of the great dormant volcanic cones of the Meilogu, and the surrounding countryside remains a patchwork the municipal page describes with pride: the wooded Littu area, the olive groves of su Monte, poplar stands at Pojos, oak woods at sa Silva and the valley of Pumàri and Badde. Bessude also belongs to the deep history of the territory, marked by Neolithic chamber tombs, nuraghi and Roman finds.

What to notice

The historic centre keeps the signature of its long story. Ancient houses carry decorated architraves and arches with Spanish and Aragonese influence, and many facades bloom with murals that make the lanes unusually photogenic. Two small streams run through the town — the su riu de mesu idda and the su riu de 'inza ena — the second crossed by a bridge built around the 1950s. At the highest point stands the parish church of San Martino, Gothic in style and built in the early seventeenth century, with a nave and side chapels housing an ancient statue of the Virgin. Older still is San Leonardo, the former parish church: late Gothic, with a gabled facade, a bell wall, a buttressed apse and its original cross vaults, it marks the spot where the village first grew, beside the old cemetery. At the entrance to the village, the restored Santa Croce now serves exhibitions and cultural events, while the countryside chapel of Santa Maria della Natività, known locally as Senora de Runaghes, watches over the fields.

Context and history

Bessude lies in the heart of the Meilogu, between Siligo and Thiesi. The territory was inhabited long before the medieval village: Neolithic domus de janas at s'Ena de Cannuia, near the border with Thiesi and Ittiri, retain graffiti and traces of ochre decoration, remains of the nuraghe san Teodoro dot the land, and Roman and medieval artefacts have surfaced over time. In the modern age the village shared the anti-feudal ferment of the region — it is named, together with Thiesi and Cheremule, among the leading centres of the late-eighteenth-century uprisings commemorated in the nearby Aligi Sassu museum. Today the town keeps its traditions alive through its kitchens as much as its stones.