The village grew around the sanctuary that held the relics of San Lussorio — today the church of Santa Croce, whose present structure was consecrated in 1185 — while the important places then were Lucentina, now vanished, and San Leonardo de Siete Fuentes, which is older than Santu Lussurgiu and is lived in almost only in summer. Water is everywhere here: near the top of the Montiferru, at about a thousand metres, the spring of Elighes Uttiosos flows out from the roots of centuries-old holm oaks, and the name means exactly that, «dripping oaks». Those streams were the village's wealth, because they drove the pre-industrial machines that made Santu Lussurgiu a prosperous community.
Eleonora d'Arborea, in recognition of what the knights of Santu Lussurgiu had done in the wars against the Aragonese, gave the inhabitants several plots of land. The horses have stayed: in the last three days of Carnival they run Sa Carrela e Nanti, a race down a steep street, on horseback, in pairs and with masked faces. The chestnut and holm oak woods that frame the village have twice been devastated by fire, in 1994 and in 2021.
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📅 Every year, on 21 August, with the Ardia de Santu Lussurzu
Santu Lussurgiu celebrates Saint Lussorius on 21 August with the Ardia de Santu Lussurzu, the horse race in honour of the patron.
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 Santu Lussurgiu, but an easy day trip away.
