Walls, ancient gates, streets that still follow the layout of the medieval city. But also books, research, and new interpretations of the past. Eleonora's city is preparing for the 2026 European Heritage Days with "Oristano. One City, Many Stories," a program that focuses on heritage on Saturday, September 26th and Sunday, September 27th.
The initiative is organized by the Antiquarium Arborense, directed by Carla Del Vais, and the Oristano Foundation, with the collaboration of the municipal Department of Culture.
The tour begins Saturday at 5:30 pm in Piazza Duomo with "Medieval Oristano. Traces That Resist," a guided tour led by historian Maria Grazia Rosaria Mele of Isem-Cnr. The tour will explore the still-legible vestiges of Oristano's Judicial history, from the city walls to its civic and religious spaces. Space is limited; reservations are required at eventi@antiquariumarborense.it.
On Sunday, at 6:00 PM at the Hospitalis Sancti Antoni, research and literature will be the focus with the award ceremony of the National Literary Prize "The Novel of Archaeology" and the 2025 National Prize for the best theses dedicated to Oristano and the province.
The evening will conclude with a lecture by Massimo Cultraro of the Institute of Cultural Heritage Sciences of the National Research Council (CNR) in Catania, entitled "Before the Phoenicians. Sardinia and the Eastern Mediterranean on the Threshold of History," dedicated to the relationship between Sardinia and the Mycenaean world in the second millennium BC.
"For Oristano, the European Heritage Days are an opportunity to bring together history, archaeology, research, literature, and participation," the organizers explain. And the goal is to look at heritage "not only as something belonging to the past, but also as something that continues to speak to the present and can be reinterpreted and enhanced in the future."
