On the border between Logudoro and Gallura, it stretches at the feet of the Limbara granitic massif, looking over the splendid panorama of Lake Coghinas, a destination of choice for sport fishing, water skiing and kayaking enthusiasts. Oschiri is an agro-pastoral town of 3300 inhabitants, known for its beef, vermentino wine, cheeses and above all, panadas, a puff pastry stuffed with meat and natural flavourings. In August, a festival in honour of this local culinary symbol is held contemporaneously with the Agro-food Festival of Gallura. The town is surrounded by valleys dotted with holm and cork oaks and Mediterranean shrubs as far as the eye can see. An excursion into the Su Filigosu Forest, an animal heaven where you can admire red and fallow deer, weasels, mouflons and soaring eagles, falcons and sparrow hawks, is a must.
Low houses and narrow roads paved with stone characterize the town’s historic centre. Here, stands the 18th century Parish of the Beata Vergine Immacolata, rebuilt in in 1903, and the 11th century Romanesque Church of San Demetrio. Other churches dating to the same century include the country churches of San Giorgio, San Pietro, San Sebastiano, Nostra Signora di Othi (the parish of a village inhabited since the 17th century), and above all, the Church of Nostra Signora di Castro, a Cathedral from the end of the 11th century to 1508, located five kilometres from Oschiri. The complex, surrounded by walls, is composed of a church, cumbessias (housing for pilgrims) and a two-story building. The church, a contemporary of the Church of Nostra Signora del Regno in Ardara, reflects the Lombard Romanesque style with a façade of pink trachyte. Its feast day is on Sunday after Easter. The former cathedral is all that remains of an ancient village of Castra: the area, inhabited from the Nuragic era to early Medieval period, is one of the most ‘Romanized’ areas on the island. The Hill of San Simeone contains the ruins of a fortified settlement, the castrum of Luguido, a military centre and a rest and control station where coin stashes have been unearthed. There may have been continuity between the Roman era and the Byzantine: archaeological and cultural evidence points to a spreading of Greek soldiers, merchants and religious figures.
The earliest evidence of human presence dates to 3000 BC: 70 Domus de Janas, half of which are contained in the necropolis of Malghesi (25 domuses) and Pedredu (13). Three more are immersed in the greenery of Puttu Iscia. Neolithic sacred and funerary rites are also referenced by the dolmen and menhir of Mount Cuccu, Mount Ulìa and Mount Berre. The most famous and enigmatic pre-Nuragic site in the area is the Complex of Santo Stefano, an area in the town’s outskirts rich in honeycombed rocks, composed of eight domuses and the (possibly Byzantine) Church of Santo Stefano. Here, you can admire a rock altar and storiated granite walls in which niches have been carved with geometric incisions and cup marks. About 60 Nuragic settlements have been recorded in the area surrounding Oschiri, including the monotowers of Accas Alvas, Longu and Monte Uri, with a unique four-cornered cross-section, and the complexes of Nuraconi and Sa Conchedda. The Nuragic site of Lughéria has produced a famous miniature bronze cart, possibly a box for storing precious objects, exhibited at MuseOs along with two votive bronze boats and coins. The museum is also ethnographic and dedicated to the Roman castrum.
