Settimo San Pietro

The name is a Roman roadside marker: it comes from Septimo ab urbe lapide, that is from the seventh milestone counting out from Cagliari. It happens often in these parts: a little further off is Decimomannu, which marks the tenth mile on the road to the Sulcis. That the Romans really worked here is shown by the aqueduct found near the village in 1880, but people were here much earlier: in the district stand the nuragic complex of Cuccuru Nuraxi and the domus de janas of S'acqua 'e is dolus.

In the Middle Ages the village belonged to the giudicato of Cagliari; when that fell, in 1257, it passed to the overseas possessions of Pisa and in 1324 to the Aragonese. From then on its story is that of an enormous fief: in 1363 the county of Quirra was created, which held together villages very far apart from one another — besides Settimo also Uta, Maracalagonis, Pula and Lanusei — and which in 1603 became a marquisate, passing from the Carroz to the Centelles and then to the Osorio de la Cueva. Redemption came only in 1839, with the abolition of the feudal system. The plains are fertile: what grows here above all are vineyards and almond trees.