Attractions and Places To See around Simaghis/Simaxis - Top 20

Beautiful baroque cathedral with a separate bell tower.

It's worth a visit, the architecture is interesting and the audio guide gives you detailed information about what you see. Entrance to the baths is included in the price (or vice versa). So if you see one you can also see the other as they are just a few minutes drive or probably 5-10 minutes walk away

A cathedral, so for Hamburgers: no carousels and beer, just church and stuff. Beautifully colorful inside.

nice square outside a pleasant baroque cathedral with a couple of gothic vestiges

The Aragonese House is a splendid example of stately architecture dating back to around the 16th-17th century. The house is divided into two parts and one of these houses a museum. Not far from here stands the church of San Pietro Apostolo.

The Franciscan Order has been present in Sardinia since 1230, and the monastery of San Francesco was founded in Oristano as early as 1253. There is no documentary evidence of the Gothic construction of the church. By the early 19th century, it was in serious disrepair, so Archbishop Giovanni Maria Bua decided to rebuild it from scratch rather than restore it. Thus, it was destroyed in 1835, and on February 17 of the following year, the foundation stone of the new church was blessed. It was designed by the Sassari friar Antonio Cano, a royal protégé who had studied at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome. The building collapsed on September 18, 1838, before the dome was completed. From the surviving survey of the church-monastery complex and its surroundings, it can be deduced that the dome had an elliptical shape, as is typical for Cano's works. Shortly thereafter, the task was assigned to the most important Sardinian architect of the 19th century, Gaetano Cima of Cagliari. The project, submitted on September 18, 1841, was approved on April 22, 1842, and work then began. The building, rebuilt according to the forms of purist classicism, reopened for worship in October 1847. The current building has a central plan with two chapels on each side and a deep semicircular apse. From the left chapel, a small room leads to the sacristy. The façade, accessible via a wide staircase with eight steps, is preceded by a tympanum-pronaos supported by four columns and two pilasters. All supports are surmounted by Ionic capitals. The façade features a large central portal and two smaller symmetrical side portals. The central body of the building is covered by a large hemispherical dome, standing on a cylindrical drum and surmounted by a polygonal lantern. Source and further information: http://www.sardegnacultura.it/j/v/253?v=2&c=2488&t=1&s=18322

The first document that testifies to the existence of the church dedicated to Santa Maria dates from February 20, 1192. In 1195 the cathedral and the entire city were set on fire and sacked by the troops of the magistrate of Cagliari Guglielmo de Lacon-Massa. The cathedral was badly damaged during the military occupation of the city and in 1228 reconstruction began. The pointed arch building, written documents and two bronze knockers on the portal bear witness to this. In the first half of the 14th century, the Romanesque structure of the Duomo was modified... The transept and the first bell tower were part of the 1300 extension, whose colored majolica dome was only added in the 18th century. In the will of King Hugh II of Arborea of April 4, 1335, the ruler mentions the place where he wanted to be buried: in the Church of the Virgin Mary of Oristano and precisely in the Chapel of San Bartolomeo, which still needs to be completed . Further extensions may have taken place between 1336 and 1349, as the grave of the legal adviser Filippo Mameli, who died in 1349, suggests. During an invasion of French militias that took place on February 25, 1637, the city of Oristano, the churches and especially the cathedral were looted and badly damaged. With the arrival of Sardinian troops from Cagliari and Sassari, the French soldiers decided to leave the city on February 28th to embark again. Pursued by the Sardinian military, the French left behind two pieces of artillery, eleven boats, thirty-six prisoners and eight banners, four of which are preserved on the wall of the main entrance of Oristano Cathedral. The current cathedral, built in the years 1729-1745 to an elegant Piedmontese Baroque design, houses the chapel with the relics of Sant'Archelao, patron saint of the city and the diocese. Source and more information: https://www.comune.oristano.it/it/amministrazione/luoghi/luogo/Cattedrale-di-Santa-Maria-Assunta/

Portixedda (literally "little door") is one of the smaller structures of the city walls, built between 1290 and 1293 by order of Judge Mariano II de' Bas-Serra d'Arborea. The defensive building controlled the important eastern access point that led to the Villa of Silì, continuing along the ancient Roman path of the Forum Traiani and finally to the Barbagie in the northeast of the island. The 13th-century structure was constructed as a square tower using mixed stone and mortar masonry techniques and was finished with an outer layer of sandstone blocks… In the second half of the 16th century, fears of an invasion of Sardinia by the Ottoman Empire necessitated an operation to modernize the defensive structures. For this purpose, the upper part of the medieval tower was demolished, while the lower part was built into a new massive tower with a circular base. The cut stone of the previous structure was reused, along with other elements such as B. the Machikoles and loopholes, which have been adapted for the use of firearms. Key elements of military development included the creation of a decorative outer bank layer built just around the base to support offensive artillery attacks. Puerta de Levante was the name given to the new solid due to its role of patrolling the road leading east. However, it was more commonly known as Portixedda to distinguish it from the largest doors such as Porta Ponti by its small size… Source: https://www.museooristano.it/view/s/b44c7b15ef994e9ca59e60fc73147784