Nuoro


Nuoro is a city and comune in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte Ortobene. It is the capital of the province of Nuoro. With a population of 36,347, it is the sixth-largest city in Sardinia.
Birthplace of several renowned artists, including writers, poets, painters, sculptors and Gianfranco Zola, Nuoro hosts some of the most important museums in Sardinia. It is considered an important cultural center of the region and it has been referred to as the "Sardinian Athens". Nuoro is the hometown of Grazia Deledda, the only Italian woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

History

The earliest traces of human settlement in the Nuoro area are the so-called Domus de janas, rock-cut tombs dated at the third millennium BC. However, fragments of ceramics of the Ozieri culture have also been discovered and dated at c. 3500 BC.
The Nuorese was a centre of the Nuragic civilization, as attested by more than 30 Nuragic sites, such has the village discovered in the countryside of Tanca Manna, just outside Nuoro, which was made of about 800 huts.
The Nuorese was crossed by a Roman road which connected Karalis to Ulbia. The legacy of the Roman colonization can especially be found in the variety of the Sardinian language which is still spoken today in Nuoro: Nuorese Sardinian is considered the most conservative dialect of Sardinian, which is in turn the most conservative Romance language.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Sardinia was held first by the Vandals and then by the Byzantines. According to the letters of Pope Gregory I, a Romanized and Christianized culture co-existed with several Pagan cultures mainly located in the island's interior. As the Byzantine control waned, the Judicates appeared. A small village known as Nugor appears on a medieval map from 1147. In the two following centuries it grew to more than 1000 inhabitants. Nuoro remained a town of average importance under the Aragonese and Spanish domination of Sardinia, until famine and plague struck it in the late 17th century.
After the annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia, the town became the administrative center of the area, obtaining the title of city in 1836.

Culture

ISRE

Since 1972 in Nuoro is active the Istituto superiore regionale etnografico, which is an institution that promotes the study and documentation of the social and cultural life of Sardinia in its traditional manifestations and its transformations. In fact, in addition to managing museums and libraries, it organizes national and international events, including:
the Sardinia International Ethnographic Film Festival and the Festival Biennale Italiano dell’Etnografia .

Museums

Along with Italian, the traditional language spoken in Nuoro is Sardinian, in its Logudorese-Nuorese variety.

Food

Nuoro is home to the world's rarest pasta, su filindeu. The name in Sardinian language means "the threads of God" and is made exclusively by the women of a single family in the town, with the recipe being passed down through generations.

Cultural international events

Transport

Road

Nuoro is served by the SS 131 DCN, the SS 129, and the SS 389.

Bus

ARST, Azienda Regionale Sarda Trasporti provide regular connections to Cagliari, Sassari, Olbia, and to several minor centres in the province and the region.
Other private operators connects Nuoro to various cities and airports in the island.

Rail

Nuoro is connected by train to Macomer via Ferrovie della Sardegna.

Local transportation

ATP Nuoro's bus system provides service within the city.

Notable people