The best traffic-free bike rides around Ùsini/Usini

In the second part, the road involves a climb with an almost prohibitive gradient

As the patron saint for this house of God, one does not refer, as is common in many places, to one from the large host of people revered as saints, but to the cross of Golgotha, on which Jesus Christ died for us. For those who remain in the church, I offer a short passage from the Way of the Cross meditation, which His Holiness Pope Leo XIV., prayed on Good Friday 2026 in the Roman Colosseum, for a meditative contemplation of SANTA CROCE: “You are king and reign from the cross: you do not use the apparent power of armies, but the apparent powerlessness of love, which allows itself to be nailed to the cross. You are king, and your cross becomes the axis around which history and the entire universe revolve ...“

The small church of San Francesco del Monte (or del Campo) is one of the many rural churches in the Sassari area (there were once nearly fifty, but many have disappeared). It is located on a hill on the far northeastern outskirts of Sassari, surrounded by olive groves and Mediterranean vegetation. It can be reached from Monte Rosello, following Via Cabu di Ispiga from the large roundabout for about 2 km. The building dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries; the façade features two orders separated by a string course and a central portal flanked by two small lancet windows. On the roof stands an open arched structure supporting the small bell. However, its main feature is the Serlian window (a round arch flanked by two openings delimited by columns) above the portal. Inside, the single nave with a barrel vault displays a small altar featuring a wooden statue of Saint Francis with the stigmata. Around October 4th, after three days of celebrations, the Saint's Day takes place with mass, a procession, a musical band, and the blessing of the animals.

The hypogeum, half-hidden by vegetation, is located along a path immersed in the woods, on the slopes between Monte Furro and the Rio Gabbaru, in the municipality of Sassari. The building, only listed after 2019, appears to date back to the Eneolithic period and must have originally had the structure and funerary function of a "domus de janas," undergoing various modifications by its users over the centuries. The square-plan hypogeum is preceded on the eastern side by a corridor a few meters long that ends with steps carved into the limestone in front of the entrance; this was modified much more recently with the insertion of iron hinges. Inside, in the large main room, a sturdy square pillar supporting the ceiling stands out in the center, while the side walls feature stone benches or shelves, various windows, and niches. On the wall opposite the entrance, two semicircular structures, hollowed out in the shape of a basin, dominate, added only late in the period (probably for pressing grapes or olives). Between them is a wide passageway leading to a second room, much more bare than the first, cluttered with debris and seemingly a warehouse. The fact that the entire structure was remodeled several times over time is also evidenced by the date 1679—engraved on one side of the pillar—and the floors of the two rooms, which appear to have been lowered compared to the original construction (probably to allow the farmers to work more comfortably while standing), as evidenced by a sort of continuous step at the base of each wall.

Marble fountain house, built during the Renaissance. The water bubbles from eight lion and four dolphin heads.

It is a single tower nuraghe in good condition, the only one in the area accessible from inside. It reaches a maximum height of 5 meters.

How to reach it from Sassari with a Monti Bianchinu-Tissi-Ossi-Scala di Giocca ring tour: https://www.komoot.it/tour/537826112

The hypogeum of Sas Puntas is one of the most important "architectural perspective" hypogea in Sardinia.