Osini

Osini is a small Ogliastra village beneath the Tacchi, Sardinia’s sheer limestone plateaus, where a Bronze Age nuragic complex crowns a thousand-metre tableland and an abandoned old town stands preserved below. It is a destination for travellers who want archaeology, karst landscapes and wine country without crowds, woven through some of the island’s quietest mountains.

Why visit

Osini condenses the appeal of interior Sardinia into a few square kilometres. Above the village, the Taccu di Osini plateau carries the Nuraghe Serbissi, a rare high-altitude nuragic complex reached through the Scala di San Giorgio, a narrow gorge between tall limestone walls. Below it lies Osini storica, the medieval settlement abandoned after a devastating 1951 flood and left today as a haunting stone ghost town, its seventeenth-century church awakened once a year for the feast of Santa Susanna. The new village of about eight hundred people quietly displays works by Maria Lai, Costantino Nivola and Pinuccio Sciola, while the surrounding holm-oak woods, olive groves and vineyards feed a culture of cannonau wine and mountain food. Climbers, walkers and archaeology lovers each find a full itinerary here, and the famous wine village of Jerzu sits next door.

Character and history

Osini’s story is one of living twice. The medieval old town grew under Aragonese and Spanish rule; when the flood of 1951 swept through, the community rebuilt about a kilometre north, leaving Osini storica to the swifts and the August feast. The modern village turned its public spaces over to Sardinian artists, so that sculptures and interventions by Lai, Nivola and Sciola punctuate the streets. The plateau above has a far older history: the Nuraghe Serbissi was inhabited between the seventeenth and tenth centuries BC, its four-towered keep, walled courtyard and eight stone-and-clay huts crowning a landscape where two giants’ tombs and a karst cave — perhaps once a food store — complete the picture. Legend adds its own layer to the Scala di San Giorgio, said to have opened miraculously for the saintly bishop of Suelli.

What to see

Start with the Nuraghe Serbissi on the Taccu di Osini: the central keep still rises over six metres with an intact tholos-vaulted chamber, the north-east tower keeps a hearth room, and a paved courtyard-corridor links the towers, all with views across the whole of Ogliastra. In the nearby town of Ulassai, the Washhouse of Ulassai turns a 1903-1905 public laundry into art: Maria Lai’s 1982 ceiling-mounted loom of ropes and iron tubes dominates, joined by Nivola’s singing fountain and fountains by Strazza and Veronesi, with the Sa Tappara trail beginning at the door. The wine village of Jerzu, perched at 450 metres between the limestone Tacchi, pours its celebrated cannonau in historic cellars and celebrates each August with the Sagra del vino and evening tastings. In holm-oak woodland near Lanusei, the Archaeological Park of the Seleni Wood preserves the nuraghe Gennacili, a village of some two hundred huts and two giants’ tombs, one associated with an incubation ritual of sleeping among the dead to meet them in dreams.

How to experience

Give the area two days at least. Day one belongs to Osini: drive or walk the gorge to the plateau in the morning when the light rakes the towers, then descend to Osini storica and read its doorways and stairways at leisure. Day two traces the art-and-wine thread — the washhouse and Maria Lai’s works in Ulassai in the morning, Jerzu’s cellars and cliff-backed streets in the afternoon. Time the calendar if you can: Santa Susanna revives the old town in August, the Scala’s patron is honoured on April 24, and Jerzu’s August festivals fill the streets with harvest carts, tenores singing and launeddas. Walkers should take the Sa Tappara loop for views over the rio Pardu valley towards the coast; climbers will find free-climbing walls at Jerzu. Eat in village trattorie — culurgiones, roast meats and the local cannonau — and buy pecorino and olive oil directly from producers.

Practical planning

Osini lies in central Ogliastra, roughly half an hour from the coastal plain at Tortolì by the SS198 and mountain roads; a car is essential. From Tortolì’s port and nearby airports it is a comfortable half-day transfer. The Nuraghe Serbissi charges admission, and access involves the gorge path, so wear sturdy shoes and check conditions — the trail can be slippery after rain, and seasonal closures occur. Village services are basic: shops and bars in the new town, small guesthouses and agriturismi in the area, with the fuller range of accommodation around Ulassai, Jerzu and Tortolì. Verify current opening hours and festival dates on sardegnaturismo.it or with local operators, as arrangements shift seasonally. Spring and autumn bring the best walking weather; summers are dry and bright on the plateau.

Nearby places

The Ogliastra neighbours each repay a detour. Baunei, to the north, opens the highland trails of the Golgo plateau and the coves of the eastern coast, while Arbatax, down at the sea, anchors the region with its port and red porphyry cliffs. The Gulf of Orosei lies within an easy excursion for a day among the limestone coves.