Villamar

The municipality of Villamar, at the beginning was called Mara Arbarei; it is located between two rivers: Rio Mannu and Riu Cani (rivers).

The first human settlements in the zone go back to the third millennium B.C., as obsidian blades finds prove. There are also many remains of nuraghic and Punic epoch: Villamar has twelve nuraghs and some necropolis inside its residential area.

The historical centre is pepped up by colour murals made by Sardinian artists and Chilean exiles; it counts a valuable cultural heritage. Along Villamar roads it is still possible to sight signs of the Iberian colonization of the village, which occurred between the fourteenth and the fifteenth century, when a community of grain merchants coming from the island of Majorca came to Sardinia because of the beginning of sales relations with Catalonia and Aragon. The colony soon merged with local population founding the so-called “Majorcan quarter”.

In Villamar there are eight churches, four in the residential area and four in the countryside: particularly valuable is the parish church of St. John the Baptist, which high altar hosts the imposing and rich retablo, painted in 1518 by Peter Cavaro, the most famous exponent of the school of Stampace.   

Municipality web site : www.comune.villamar.vs.it