San Basilio: Churches, Thermal Baths and Sardinian Festive Culture

San Basilio combines sacred architecture, Roman archaeology, Sardinian crafts and a landscape of holm oak and oak forests. This creates a destination where cultural interests and routes through the landscape come together with a clear connection to the locality. If you are looking for a hotel, you can base your choice of location on these different themes.

Churches and Traces of the Past

The parish church of San Pietro Apostolo was built between 1593 and 1723. The church in San Basilio dedicated to Saint Sebastian most likely dates back to the 12th century. Also in the 12th century, the Byzantine church of San Basilio Magno was built by Basilian monks; its front façade dates from the 16th century. The remains of the rural church of San Sebastiano Martire are located on a rocky spur at the site in the Gennas area that archival documents identify as the town’s first settlement core.

Thermal Baths, Crafts and Landscape

The thermal complex of San Basilio dates back to the 2nd century AD; its remains lie near San Basilio, below and around the church of San Basilio. Originally, it comprised a frigidarium, a tepidarium, a caldarium and a laconicum. The combination of the ancient complex and the churches makes the site particularly interesting for travellers who want to interpret historical traces at their own pace.

Traditional crafts are kept alive in San Basilio. They produce high-quality textiles made on an old loom and woodwork. Together with the holm oak and oak forests, this creates a local setting in which cultural themes and the landscape stand closely side by side. When choosing your accommodation, you can use this combination as a guide to the character of your trip.

Festivals Throughout the Year

Sa Cursa de Sa Pudda takes place every year in early February, usually in the first week, in San Basilio. In this equestrian competition, a wooden hen is seized instead of a star; the event resembles the Sartiglia of Oristano.

The feast of San Pietro Apostolo is celebrated every year on 29 June at the parish church and includes religious rites, secular events and traditional dances in the square. At the Festa di Sant'Antonio Abate e di San Sebastiano, which takes place on one day between 17 and 20 January, the preparation of the traditional breads Madditzosu and Pani cun gerda, as well as sheep’s cheese and torrone, the shoeing of horses, and Sardinian chests and hewn stones are demonstrated or displayed.

Routes to the Sardinia Radio Telescope

The Sardinia Radio Telescope was built and inaugurated in 2013 in the Pranu Sanguni area of San Basilio; its site lies within the municipality of San Basilio. A footpath or hiking trail leads from San Basilio Town Hall through the landscape, via a meeting point at the spring, to the Pranu Sanguni area and the Sardinia Radio Telescope. A driving route leads via the SS 131 towards Oristano, the turn-off at kilometre 21.6 towards Senorbì, and then via San Basilio and Silius to the SP 25.

Further destinations for planning your trip: Cagliari, San Priamo, Escalaplano, Quartu Sant'elena, Nurri, La Maddalena, Sant'Isidoro, Serdiana.

To the higher-level travel overview: Cagliari.