Set on the northern slopes of the Gennargentu at a thousand metres, Fonni is the highest comune in Sardinia: a town of 4,062 inhabitants in the Barbagia di Ollolai, crossed by the river Aratu. The climate is not the warm one of the rest of the island: February averages around four degrees, frosts are frequent and the snow cover sometimes exceeds a metre, while the summer stays mild. The territory holds at least forty nuraghi, many menhirs, domus de janas and the giants' tombs of Madau and Bidistili.
In Roman times the mansio Sarabensis stood here; in the Middle Ages the village belonged to the Giudicato of Arborea and to the curatoria of the Barbagia di Ollolai, passed to the marquisate of Oristano and then to the Aragonese, and in 1604 ended up in the duchy of Mandas. In 1708 father Pacifico Guiso Pirella had the sanctuary of the Beata Vergine dei Martiri built beside the convent of the Friars Minor of the Observance; in 1821 the shepherds of Fonni rose against the Edict of Enclosures. Carnival brings the Urthos and the Buttudos into the square, and on the first Sunday of August the Palio dei Comuni is run.
No events match these filters.
📅 Every year, on 24 June, the feast of Santu Juvanne alongside Sos Martires
Fonni celebrates Saint John the Baptist on 24 June, with the feast of Santu Juvanne, alongside that of Sos Martires in honour of the Madonna dei Martiri.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Fonni, but an easy day trip away.
