Sennori

The region is called Romangia, from Romania: the lands conquered by Rome, as against the Barbagia, the lands of the barbarians, the ones Rome never managed to take. Sennori was probably born right in between, as a garrison village of Roman soldiers set to keep watch on the neighbouring Sossinati, a warlike tribe named in the ancient sources. The name appears for the first time in 1082, in a deed of donation to Santa Maria of Pisa, as Domo de Sanctae Maria de Sennor. The town stands on a hill of calcareous tufa, among olive groves and vineyards: in 1987, the year the association was founded, it was the first Sardinian municipality to join the Cities of Wine.

The Sardinian spoken here has an oddity no one else has: the feminine plural turns masculine. The doors, which in Logudorese are sas jannas, in Sennori are sos jannos; the keys, sas jaes, become sos jais. The influence of the neighbouring dialects, those of Sorso and Sassari, is thought to be behind it. Of the feudal age there remain the palace they call Palattu Ezzu and the memory of Rosa Gambella, baroness of Romangia and vicereine of Sardinia, whose story ended up in a novel by Enrico Costa. In 1796 the parish rector, don Cristoforo Aragonez, took part in the anti-feudal riots.