^{City of Tempio Pausania}

Tempio Pausania (in Gallurese Tèmpiu) is a town of 14,230 inhabitants set 566 m. a.s.l. and it is the Capital of the Province of Olbia Tempio, together with Olbia. The villages of Nuchis, Bassacutena and a part of the borough of San Pasquale belong to Tempio, too.

It is the main administrative centre of the Province and it gives hospitality to social security and financial State offices and the civil and criminal court (with jurisdiction on the whole Province). It is Bishop’s See (Tempio – Ampurias diocese) and it hosts a branch of Sassari University.

The territory of Tempio boasts a typical high-hill landscape and it looks like a mountain near the summit of Mount Limbara (1,359 m.); its slopes are covered with thick woods (above all oak and ilex) and inhabited by a rich and variegated fauna.

The water streams sloping down from the mountain flow together into the River Liscia (North-East) or into the River Coghinas (South-West).

Tempio and its surroundings keep intact prehistoric and nuragic archaeological attestations. The grottoes of Montagnana and Monte Limpas date at the Prenuragic Age, while the village of Monte Lu Finocchiu, the graves of Monte di Deu and the nuraghi Izzana, Agnu, Polcu, Monte de Littu e Maiori date at the Nuragic Age. Excavations conducted in piazza Gallura have disclosed spoils of a Nuragic village near the town-centre.

During the Roman Age the village of “Gemellae” arose here, while in the Middle Age, the borough of Villa Templi that would have belonged to Giudicato di Gallura was founded.

During the XX century, the broad municipal territory was considerably downsized because of the municipal autonomy obtained by some of its boroughs (Santa Teresa in 1821, Arzachena in 1922, Luogosanto in 1954, Palau and Aglientu in 1959, Telti in 1963, Loiri-Porto San Paolo in 1979).

Tempio’s economy is currently based on little and middle industry: food, textiles, wood and cork processing, mechanics and granite transformation. Agriculture (grapes, fruit, horticulture), bovine, ovine and caprine farming are important as well. Wine production of “Cantina Gallura” is very important (Vermentino di Gallura DOCG, Moscato-Spumante of Tempio DOC, Spumanti and other wines). The trade network, exploited also by the inhabitants from the villages nearby, is well-developed.

The town-centre has maintained its original appearance with its granite buildings dating back to 1700 and 1800, well-kept and particularly valuable. Piazza Gallura is the town-centre and not too far there is the church of San Pietro (XV century), the city cathedral, and opposite the gothic-aragonese Oratorio del Rosario. In Parco delle Rimembranze there is the museum Bernardo Demuro, where a collection of the great tenor from Tempio is kept. Near Parco delle Rimembranze there is Parco di San Lorenzo with its granite church dipped into a flourishing pinewood. Then it’s possible to run into Fonte di Rinaggiu, still dipped into an evocative wood, by which a famous pure diuretic mineral water springs up.

Other noticeable religious monuments are the church of San Francesco (XVI century), the church of Sant’Antonio da Padova (XVII century) and that of San Bachisio, very old and situated at the foot of Mount Limbara.

In Tempio every year “Su Carrasciali Tempiesu” takes place, the most important carnival floats parade of Sardinia, which attracts a large number of visitors.

Tempio hosts yearly music and culture festivals in honour of the singer-song-writer Fabrizio De Andrè, that lived part of his life in Tempio, in his estate of L’Agnata, with his partner Dori Ghezzi.