Oristano (Sardinia Italy)

Oristano is a port town on Italy's Sardinia Island's central-western coast, with population around 30,000. The island's capital city (Cagliari) is approx 95 km (60 mi) to the southeast via E25 highway. The province is served by Oristano-Fenosu Airport in Fenosu (located approx 2 km / 2 mi east of Oristano via highway SS-131 Carlo Felice/Cagliari-Sassari) where are handled only domestic flights by civil aviation aircraft plus flights linking to Italian military airfields.

Superyachts and smaller-sized cruise ships to Oristano dock at Porto Industriale (the industrial port) separated from the city by Stagno di Santa Giusta (lake). On shore excursions from Oristano (bus tours) are visited Nuraghe Losa (12th-15th-centuries walls and towers near Abbasanta, approx 35 km / 22 mi to the northeast) and Santuario Nuragico di Santa Cristina (Nuragic Sanctuary/Archaeological Park).

Oristano's economy is heavily based on tourism, services, agriculture, small industries. The town is also served by the railway Ferrovia Cagliari-Golfo Aranci (aka Dorsale Sarda) that also interlinks the port cities Cagliari-Villasor-Olbia-Golfo Aranci-Porto Torres.

Oristano (as Aristanis) was founded by the Byzantines and is close to Santa Giusta (founded by the Phoenicians as Othoca) located approx 3 km (2 mi) to the southeast. The town's most popular tourist attractions include Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta (12th-century cathedral), Seminario Tridentino (18th-century seminary), Chiesa di San Francesco (19th-century church), Chiesa di Santa Chiara (14th-century church and monastery), Chiesa del Carmine (church and noun convent), Chiesa del Santo Spirito (17th-century church), Chiesa di San Sebastiano (16th-century church), Chiesa delle Cappuccine (18th-century church and monastery), Chiesa della Beata Vergine Immacolata (17th-century church and Capuchins convent), Chiesa di San Martino (14th-century church), Chiesa di San Domenico (17th-century church and Dominican convent), Chiesa di Sant'Antonio Abate (14th-century church and hospital), Chiesa di San Nicola (15th-century church), Chiesa di Santa Petronilla and Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena (14th-century churches), Oratorio della Purissima (15th-century church), 18th-century churches (San Giovanni dei Fiori, Sant'Efisio, Santa Lucia).

Also famous are Torre di Mariano/San Cristoforo (13th-century twin tower, one of the two main gates of the city walls), Torrione di Portixedda (medieval circular tower), Antiquarium Arborense (archaeological museum displaying nuraghi items, archaeological finds Tharros, 15th-16th-century Spanish handicrafts). The Santa Cristina Sanctuary is a Nuragic archaeological site consisting of two separate parts - a sacred well temple (with attached stone structures and huts) and a village complex (tower, circular and quadrangular stone huts).