Aggius
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Bortigiadas
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Calangianus
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Luogosanto
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Luras
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Nuchis
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Olbia
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Tempio
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The rural churches
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Olbia
The city of Olbia, according to mythology was founded by the
Tespiesi Greeks in the sixth century BC with the name of Olbia (the felicitous), came in the wake
of Iolaus, Heracle's faithful companion and nephew.
It was certainly Phoenician and Punic colony, until 259 BC, when - shortly after the Battle of
Milazzo - the Roman squadron of L. Cornelius Scipio defeated the Carthaginians, entering
triumphantly into the newly conquered city, which still held out a small army led by a certain Hanno.
In 238 BC it became definitely Roman growing along the sea with massive walls, up to 455 when
it was destroyed by the Vandals.
By the sixth century is documented as a diocese of Phasana or Phausania, demic center not yet
identified with certainty, that might be the one proposed by Panedda in the Pasan location a
few kilometers to the west beside the current city.
According to some hypotheses the city was refounded by the Visconti in the thirteenth century
under the name of Terranova to make it the capital of the Giudicato [Judged] of Gallura, although the
bishop's seat and the judicial court - according to the few remaining documents - would have
been around the cathedral dedicated to Simplicius martyr, first bishop of Fausania, with the name
of Civita, while recent excavations reveals a historical continuity between the Roman Olbia
and the medieval Terranova. After the occupation of the Giudicato by the Republic of Pisa in 1288,
the city had a sort of Italian-type comunal regulation, governed by a mayor and home to a
camerarius; as such he also had a statute - now lost - which, according
to some, would result the chapters of the port of Terranova, preserved
in the State Archive of Cagliari.
In 1323 it was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia, just conquered by the Aragoneses and from 16 to 25
February 1324 its port welcomed the Pisan fleet fleeing from Castel di Castro (now Cagliari),
besieged by the infant Alfonso. The city after some ferment of revolt lost its importance and
was given in fief to Berengar Arnaldo de Anglesola, in exchange for a one armed horse only.
On the 18 June 1349 was bought by John of Arborea and, along with other villas constituted the
largest fief of Gallura, later passed to his wife Sybil because of his arrest wanted by his
brother Mariano IV.
During the long conflict between the kings of Aragon and that of Arborea, Terranova passed from
one to another several times, although he was almost always Arborea until 1420, when it followed
the fate of other villas of the top of Gallura as Aggius, Bortigiadas, Calangianus, Luras and Nuchis.
The city declined gradually until it reaches an almost complete depopulation around the
sixteenth century. The revival occurred in the eighteenth century with the construction of
the new road linking it to the "Carlo Felice" (the Cagliari-Porto Torres highway) on the remnants
of the Roman one, then in 1881 with the completion of the railroad to Cagliari and Sassari.
Become Italian, Terranova changed its name in Terranova Pausania on July 21, 1862.
However, the real development occurred after 1920 with the reactivation of the commercial port
at full speed, so that when the name changed again taking up the greek one of Olbia in 1939,
its population was more than doubled. It was bombed during World War II, but it recovered very
quickly, especially after the construction of the Venafiorita first and the Costa Smeralda airport then,
as a major center of tourism in the north-east of the island.
Connected files
67. Visit of the St. Paul church, 28.05.1752
118. Journey from Tempio to Terranova, 10.05.1763
St. Paul
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St. Simplicius
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St. Cross
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© Luigi Agus 2012