What is Sardara known for?

Hyperthermal springs at 45-60 degrees used continuously from the Nuragic period through Roman Aquae Neapolitanae to the modern Antiche Terme. Fourteenth-century Arborea fortress on the Cagliari frontier, residence of Eleonora d'Arborea, three towers surviving on a basalt hill. Centro storico built from sun-dried mud bricks in the Campidano tradition, member of the Città della Terra Cruda network.

Sardara is a comune in the province of Sud Sardegna, Sardinia region of Italy, about 56 kilometers from Cagliari.

Sardinia · Sud Sardegna

Sardara

A Campidano thermal town where Nuragic well-temples, Roman Aquae Neapolitanae and a hilltop Arborea castle share the same hot springs.

56 km / 35 mi

Nearest hub (Cagliari)

3,801

Population

All year

Best time to visit

Recognised as

Why come

Sardara sits in the centre of the Campidano plain, on the historic frontier between the medieval Giudicato of Arborea and the Giudicato of Cagliari, fifty kilometres north of the regional capital. The thermal waters here surface mineralised at 45 to 60 degrees and have been used since the ninth century BC, when the Nuragic well-temple known as funtana de is dolus marked the source as sacred. The Romans built the bath complex called Aquae Neapolitanae, recorded by Ptolemy in the second century and still operating today as the Antiche Terme di Sardara. Above the town, the Castello di Monreale rises on a basalt hill: a fourteenth-century Arborea fortress where Eleonora d'Arborea and her father Mariano IV stayed, ruined now but with three surviving towers. The old centre is a Città della Terra Cruda, built from sun-dried mud bricks, and a Bandiera Arancione of the Touring Club Italiano.

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Gallery

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Known for

Castello di Monreale
Hilltop ruined fortress built between 1200 and 1300 on the Arborea-Cagliari frontier, residence of Mariano IV and Eleonora d'Arborea, with three surviving towers.
Antiche Terme di Sardara (Santa Maria Aquas)
Hyperthermal bicarbonate-alkaline springs at 45-60 degrees, used since the Nuragic period and developed by the Romans as Aquae Neapolitanae.
Pozzo sacro di Sant'Anastasia
Nuragic well-temple from the ninth-eighth centuries BC at the centre of the town, the funtana de is dolus dedicated to a water cult.
Chiesa della Beata Vergine Assunta
Early fifteenth-century parish church on Piazza Libertà, at the top of a stone staircase in the centro storico.
Chiesa di Santa Maria Aquas
Christian sanctuary built over the Roman bath complex, the dedication that gave the thermal locality its modern name.

When to visit

Best months · All year

Best
Hot or crowded
Quiet
Mostly closed

The thermal waters run year-round, which makes Sardara one of the few Sardinian communes where January is as workable as September. Spring and autumn give the dry warmth that suits the Campidano: walks up to the Monreale castle, the Nuragic well-temple under olive trees, the plain spreading toward the Giara. July and August touch thirty-five degrees on the plain, and the thermal pools shift to early morning and evening use. The Santa Maria de is Aquas festival opens on the second-to-last Monday of September and runs four days, with horse displays, folk groups and food stalls around the sanctuary built on the Roman baths.