Villagrande Strisaili has 3,376 inhabitants in the upper Ogliastra, below the Gennargentu, and it is the third largest comune in Sardinia by area. The name is the sum of two things: Bidda Manna, the big village, and Tres Ailes, the three sheepfolds. Here men live as long as women, which in the world is an anomaly: it is for villages like this one that the demographers Gianni Pes and Michel Poulain invented the expression "blue zone", drawing blue circles on the map around the areas of greatest longevity.
The territory holds seventeen nuraghi, seven giants' tombs and the sanctuary of S'Arcu 'e Forros, with a megaron temple and two well temples; the real altar is in the museum of Nuoro, and on the site they have left a copy so that the original would not be ruined by the rain. There is also an account left open for three and a half centuries: when around 1670 the plague destroyed the village of Onnis, Villagrande and Fonni took in its refugees, and over the pastures left free they quarrelled for nearly two hundred years. The king of Sardinia closed the matter by giving the people of Fonni Monte Novu in perpetual emphyteusis: the land is still Villagrande's, the use is Fonni's.
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📅 Every year, on 1 August; the IT.A.CÀ festival in September
Villagrande Strisaili celebrates Saint Gabriel the Archangel on 1 August. Every September, the IT.A.CÀ responsible tourism festival is held.
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 Villagrande Strisaili, but an easy day trip away.
