Uri

Uri has 3,016 inhabitants in the north-west of Sardinia, halfway between Sassari and Alghero. On the name the linguists are fairly well agreed: it comes from the Basque ur, which means water, a very ancient root that is found again in the name of the Swiss canton of the same name. In the territory at least 48 nuraghi have been counted, and one of them, with its village, stands right in the middle of the town. And in the traditional dress of the women of Uri there is one piece that in the whole island is theirs alone: su pittiglio, the only embroidered one.

The lake you see in these parts has not always been there: the dam on the river Cuga was built between 1956 and 1974, and it takes its name from a village that no longer exists. Archaeology went under the water as well — a nuraghe and other remains — but it comes back into view every summer, when between June and September the lake drops and the bed reappears. In 2016, not far off, two new domus de janas were found, the tombs cut into the rock.