Guspini (Gùspini in Sardinian) is a town and ''

comune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces ('' province''). The can ...

'' of about 12,000 inhabitants in west Sardinia (Italy), in the

province of South Sardinia The Province of South Sardinia ( it, provincia del Sud Sardegna; sc, provìntzia de Sud Sardigna) is an Italian province of Sardinia instituted on 4 February 2016. It includes the suppressed provinces of Carbonia-Iglesias and Medio Campidano, ...

. It is from the capital

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitan ...

and from the railway station at San Gavino Monreale. Close to Guspini, at the mines of Montevecchio and Gennamari,

galena Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver. Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It cry ...

and

sphalerite Sphalerite (sometimes spelled sphaelerite) is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula . It is the most important ore of zinc. Sphalerite is found in a variety of deposit types, but it is primarily in sedimentary exhalative, Mississippi-Va ...

were extracted in the past. Today the people at Guspini are concentrated on agriculture, on tourism and on smaller to middle enterprises. Close to Guspini are some well-built

nuraghe The nuraghe (, ; plural: Logudorese Sardinian , Campidanese Sardinian , Italian ), or also nurhag in English, is the main type of ancient megalithic edifice found in Sardinia, developed during the Nuragic Age between 1900 and 730 B.C ...

s and the

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their his ...

Punic The Punic people, or western Phoenicians, were a Semitic people in the Western Mediterranean who migrated from Tyre, Phoenicia to North Africa during the Early Iron Age. In modern scholarship, the term ''Punic'' – the Latin equivalent of the ...

archaeological site of Neapolis.

History

The first traces of human settlement in the area of Guspini trace back to prior the Nuragic period. Traces of Nuragic, Phoenician-Punic, Bizantine and Roman settlements have been found. The town has a medieval structure with the Church of Santa Maria of Malta which was founded by the knights of the same order, as the most ancient trace. In the Middle Ages the town was part of the Giudicato of Arborea, whose rulers possessed a castle on a nearby mount built in 1100, on the Mount Arcuentu. From the 19th century Guspini's history was strictly linked to the mines of Montevecchio.

Monuments and places of interest

Religious buildings

* Church of San Nicola di Mira, built into a late gothic style in the first half of the 17th century. Its facade is characterized by a rose window. * Church of Santa Maria of Malta, built into romanic style in the 10th century: it was part of a monastery belonging to the Byzantine (Greek) Catholic Church. * Church of San Pio X, built in 1966. * Church of San Giovanni Bosco, built in 1977.

Civilian buildings

* Casa Murgia * Montegranatico * Municipio (Town hall)

Archeology

Pre-Nuragic sites

* Perdas Longas menhirs. * Genna Prunas menhir close to the sacred well ''Sa Mitza de Nieddinu.'' * domus de janas di Bruncu Maddeus near the nuraghe ''Bruncu e s'Orcu''. Nuragic sites * more than 30 nuraghes such as ''Nuraghe Saurecci'' and ''Nuraghe Melas'' that are the most well preserved. * 2 sacred wells: ** sacred well Sa Mitza de Nieddinu (1.200-900 a.C.) ** sacred well of Is Trigas. The other most interesting archeological site is the Phoenician-Punic and later Roman city of Neapolis.

Mines

* Montevecchio mines. Among the East mines: * Piccalinna mine. * Sant'Antonio mine. * Sciria mine. Among the West mines: * Casargiu mine. * Sanna mine. * Telle mine.

Natural monuments

* Columns of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...

, located inside the town. * ''Sa rocca incuaddigada'' (translatable from the Sardinian as ''"The mounted rock"''); it is a gigantic granitic rock placed on the slope of Mount Santa Margherita where the water springs Sa Tella and Sattai are also.

External links

Official website

Cities and towns in Sardinia {{Sardinia-geo-stub