San Salvatore – San Salvatore, Italy - Atlas Obscura

San Salvatore

San Salvatore, Italy

This isolated village has a church with underground structures that date to the pre-christian period. 

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This tiny village, which is 18km west of the large town of Oristano, is largely unoccupied except on Sardinia Day (April 28th) and  the first weekend in September when the sporting/religious festival called the Corsa degli Scalzi attracts many people, some of who maintain properties in the village just to stay in for the period of the event. Local young men run barefoot along the (very rocky) paths between Cabras and San Salvatore carrying the statue of the Holy Saviour, the patron of the church. On Sardinia Day there is a festival that involves people dressing up either in various animal based costumes or traditional dress.

 Apart from its fascinating tiny (and unoccupied) houses, which are known locally as cumbessias, the 17th century church is   the main physical attraction in San Salvatore, particularly its underground hypogeum or crypt. This was originally a  pagan chapel from the nuragic (bronze age) period. It is thought to be linked to the cult of water and the hypogeum’s well is still the source of water for the village. During  the late Roman era it was converted into a Christian church, and there is still some evidence of the previous  life in the form of frescoes on the walls.

A significant subset of visitors however are there because  of the association  with spaghetti  westerns of the 1960s. Although  the rumour that part of “A Fistful  of Dollars” was shot there is probably untrue (but, for obvious  reasons, not  actively disavowed) the similarity between this village and those in the SW United States has resulted in a number of such movies being filmed here. Of these the most significant  is “Garter Colt”, starring Nicoletta Machiavelli,  which is almost unique amongst the Italo-western genre in having a female in the leading role.

Know Before You Go

Entry to the church is free but you have to ask at the information  centre for it to be unlocked. Entrance to the hypogeum is by guided tour ( in Italian only) and costs €8.