Iglesias – Pearl of the "Ore Mountains"

Not far from the south-west coast of Sardinia lies a real insider tip: the small town of Iglesias. Now you may rightly ask yourself why a Sardinian town bears such a name. Are the 30,000 inhabitants of Iglesias perhaps all ardent fans of the Spanish pop singer?

The answer may disappoint some and delight others, because those who come to Iglesias will not be greeted by a constant barrage of mellifluous tenor singing, nor will they find any murals of Julio. The answer lies in the depths of the past, more precisely in the year 1324. At that time, Sardinia fell to the Aragonese, and Iglesias, then still called Villa di Chiesa, was the first of the Sardinian cities to be conquered by the Spanish after a seven-month siege and was soon renamed.

However, both the Italian and Spanish names refer to a special feature of Iglesias, namely the relatively large number of churches. Of the original eighteen churches, twelve are still preserved today. The oldest of these is the Byzantine Church of San Salvatore from the 9th century, the time when the city was founded. The most important sacred building is the Romanesque-Gothic Cathedral of Santa Chiara, which was built between 1285 and 1288. Lovers of Baroque church architecture will enjoy the Jesuit Church of Vergine Purissima with its stately marble high altar. But the pretty old town with its small shops and nice cafés is also worth a visit. At the edges of the old town, you can still marvel at parts of the city wall, which defied the Spanish conquerors for months at the time. The Castello de Salvaterra, located on a hill, also reminds us of times of war and offers a beautiful panoramic view.

But what is the significance of the Ore Mountains mentioned in the article headline? Well, the surrounding Iglesiente – the mountainous landscape that gave Iglesias its name – is, or rather was, incredibly rich in mineral resources. Phoenicians, Punics, Romans, Pisans and Spaniards mined silver, lead, zinc, copper, iron and coal in the mountains. The silver mines were considered exhausted from the 15th century onwards, but other ores and coal continued to be mined until the 1970s, when even that was no longer profitable. What remains are disused mines and imposing industrial buildings that are part of the UNESCO-recognised Geology and Mining Park of Sardinia. Here you can visit the Monteponi mine or the ghost village of Nebida, where three thousand people lived until 1910. For me, this landscape has a very special charm, even if it may not be apparent to some at first glance.

But Inglesiente also has more universally appealing scenic beauty to offer. The steep rocky coastline with its numerous small bays and the long beach at Porto Paglia are breathtakingly beautiful and have their own landmark in the form of the small rocky island of Pan di Zucchero, a natural monument.

With a Sardinian ‘Adiosu’, I bid you farewell for today.

Yours, Joachim Waßmann

Images: Houses in the old town of Iglesias, image by Stephanie Albert on Pixabay

Mura Iglesias, image by Gaius Crastinus, Creative Commons

Pan di Zucchero, image by Gianderiu, Creative Commons