Gramsci’s Sardinia: the places of his youth

Gramsci’s Sardinia: the places of his youth

A Journey to the Oristano area through towns marked by the memory of a great Sardinian intellectual

you’ll be visiting places described by a great 20th-century personality

It’s an itinerary that pays homage to one of the of the 20thcentury’s protagonists of Sardinian and Italian literary history, a scholar and a big political personality. It makes stops in the villages he frequented during his childhood and adolescence. From Ales to Ghilarza, passing through Santu Lussurgiu, you’ll be visiting places surrounded by breathtaking scenery and rich in historical and cultural references.

Itinerary: 102 kilometres

Road journey time: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Ales, his birthplace

The itinerary starts on the slopes of Monte Arci. Antonio Gramsci was born in 1891, in Ales, one of the smallest bishoprics in Italy. The house where he was born is indicated by a plaque on the outside and cultural events are now held there. The beautiful baroque cathedral is just two hundred metres away and Piazza Gramsci, created by the sculptor Giò Pomodoro, is 500 metres away. The obsidian trails and paths through the woods of Monte Arci await you a few kilometres further west.

Ales

In Marmilla, on the border between Campidano di Cagliari and Oristanese, lies a village that stands out thanks to its extensive and important...

Studies in Santu Lussurgiu

To reach the second stage, you will travel eighty kilometres to the north. Gramsci studied in Santu Lussurgiu, the village of canti a cuncordu and equestrian traditions, during his high school years between 1905 and 1908, at the Salesian Carta-Meloni Institute. In Letters from Prison, Gramsci tells various anecdotes about the years spent in the village of Montiferru. In the area, the Sos Molinos waterfall and the ‘fairytale’ landscape of San Leonardo di Siete Fuentes are worth visiting.

Santu Lussurgiu

Within its ancient architecture, the fascinating historical village of Montiferru in central-western Sardinia preserves memories of the past,...

Ghilarza, childhood and adolescence

Travelling a further twenty kilometres, you will come to the house where Gramsci spent his childhood and adolescence. Today, it is a museum and cultural centre, exhibiting objects that belonged to him, for daily and work use, along with toys that he built himself, objects used in prison, documents, correspondence and books. By following the thematic itineraries, you can visit places dear to him and mentioned in his letters, like the church of San Pietro di Zuri and the novenary of San Serafino, a destination for devotional itineraries.

Ghilarza

Barigadu, a centre of culture in the heart of Sardinia, famous for being the place where Gramsci grew up and for its ancient sanctuaries, the art...

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Gramsci’s Sardinia: the places of his youth