The name means country village: it comes from the Latin saltus, and in Sardinian Villasalto is Biddesatu. The countryside, though, is not what made the village grow in the 20th century. A few kilometres away is the mine of Su Suergiu, where antimony was dug and worked: it had drawn interest since the middle of the 19th century, and during the Second World War it brought in so many people that the population rose sharply. When the war ended the work dwindled, then the mine closed, and since then Villasalto has been emptying. The territory looks out over the Flumendosa and runs beyond the river, into the district called Barigau, which means across the water.
Monte Genis, at 979 metres, holds several things at once. On its top stands an imposing nuragic building, a central tower with crown towers joined by massive walls; at 700 metres, instead, there is a group of stone circles of various sizes called Sa dom'e sa nì, the house of the snow, and nobody has yet explained what it was for: perhaps a water cult, perhaps the huts of a village. In the caves of the territory, Sa Grutta Manna and Sa Grutta 'e Scusi, lives the Sardinian cave salamander. To the east Monte Lora makes a sphinx out of its limestone promontories. The village's great feast is Saint Barbara's, on the first Monday of June, and it lasts at least four days; then it is held again, smaller, on the first Sunday of July, so that those who have left can be there too.
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📅 Every year, on 29 September
On 29 September Villasalto celebrates its patron Saint Michael the Archangel, marked only with religious rites; the village's most heartfelt feast is instead that of Saint Barbara, on the first Monday of June, drawing pilgrims from across the Sarrabus area.
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 Villasalto, but an easy day trip away.
