GIAVE

The town of Giave is located on a basaltic plateau in a dominant position over the underlying plains of “Campu Giavesu” and the “Valle dei Nuraghi”.

The town has an elevation of about 600 meters above sea level, yet this is not the highest altitude in the entire territory, but it is “Mount Traessu” that exceeds 700 meters. On the other hand, the lowest plains reach only 240 meters above sea level, making Giave a territory with rather significant differences in elevation. Giave borders to the north with Thiesi, Cheremule and Torralba, to the east and south with Bonorva, and to the south and west with Cossoine, a territory with which Giave shares the imposing “Mount Traessu”, so called because it is located in a transversal position with respect to the three important hydrographic deposits of the territory: the lake “Temo”, the lake “Coghinas” and the river “Mannu”.

To the east of the town, towards Bonorva, stands the relief of “Planu Roccaforte”, which once housed the castle of the same name built by the Doria family in the 1330s with the intention of controlling the entire valley from above, including the road that connected Sardinia from south to north and which then branched off towards Olbia. About a century later, the castle was conquered and destroyed by the Aragonese and today only a few remains can be seen.

The plains of “Campu Giavesu” and the “Valle dei Nuraghi” are rich in archaeological finds and sites that demonstrate the presence of human settlements in the territory of Giave since prehistoric times.

The town is crossed entirely by a single long avenue that has two names, “Corso Repubblica” first and “Viale San Cosimo” after, which leads to the forane sanctuary dedicated to San Cosimo and Damiano. The avenue is lined with ancient houses and noble villas, as well as a wonderful pine forest, a meeting place for the inhabitants, especially in the summer, when the evenings are often enriched by events and demonstrations of various kinds. The historic center is very tidy with cobblestone streets and squares in which ancient houses with exposed stone alternate with modern buildings. There are several murals that embellish the streets of the town.

The name “Iafe” is found for the first time in the “condaghe of San Nicola di Trullas” starting from the 12th century, and subsequently in other documents both with the calligraphy with the “f” and with “ph” Iaphe, but also with “v” Iave. The initial “i” is sometimes replaced with “j”, and in the year 1436 we have the first written attestation of the name with which we call the town of Giave today. There is instead debate as to whether Giave could correspond to the famous town of Punic origin known as “Hafa”, which according to some researchers represented the junction towards Olbia of the ancient Cagliari-Porto Torres Road artery.

The economy of Giave is strongly linked to its territory.
The large plains of “Campu Giavesu” and the “Valle dei Nuraghi” with their fertile lands have been exploited since ancient times until today for agriculture and livestock farming.

The industrial area of Campu Giavesu today hosts various activities ranging from the production and sale of cheese and animal feed to shops and exhibitions of wooden houses and interior furnishings, up to a modern and very popular restaurant.

The parish church of Sant’Andrea was built in 1583 in Catalan Gothic style and underwent a major renovation in 1788. These are the two dates that are carved in two parts of the church and, according to researchers, they symbolize these two events. It has a gabled façade with a bronze arched door that opens towards the interior of the church, which has a single nave divided into five bays supported by arches, which in turn open laterally into side chapels dedicated to different saints. The tall bell tower has an octagonal shape and houses three bells.

In the south-west part of the town, built in the medieval period in Romanesque style, in a panoramic position towards the valleys below, there is the church of San Sisto. The original building has been renovated and added to at various times. The facade, which overlooks a large square in front, is made of limestone blocks and has various decorative elements, the arched door opens onto a single nave, while outside near the apse there is a mullioned bell tower.

In the center of the town is the church of Santa Croce. The sculpture of a date on a stone above the entrance door tells us that it was built in 1671. The facade is made of limestone blocks with a large rose window, and, below, a square door decorated with lateral columns in masonry. Inside, the single nave is divided into three bays, and the marble altar houses a beautiful wooden retable.

About 1 km from the center of the town stands the church of Saints Cosimo and Damiano, to which is also added San Pantaleo, who, according to some testimonies, originally, was even the only saint, protector of doctors, to whom the church was dedicated. Only in later times was the sanctuary also dedicated to the other two holy brothers, also protectors of doctors, perhaps to strengthen faith and prayers especially in times of illness and plague. The church is completely white on the outside and devoid of decorations, while inside it has three naves divided by arches.

The territory of Giave is very rich in archaeological evidence that dates to the Neolithic period, such as the various tombs of the giants present both in the “Campu Giavesu” area and in the “Valle dei Nuraghi”, and indeed the nuraghes, very numerous in the area, but of which perhaps the most representative is the nuraghe “Oes”. A complex nuraghe with a central tower 13 meters high and with a diameter of 16, two lateral towers and an internal courtyard. Originally the keep included three overlapping rooms with wooden floors that no longer exist. These rooms could be reached via a spiral staircase that is still well preserved today. The analysis of the finds also tells us that there was a defence wall and a village of huts that still needs to be excavated. The nuraghe “Oes” is about 800 meters in a beeline from the famous Nuraghe Santu Antine, while the route to reach it via the provincial road 21 is about 3 km from it.

To the north of the town of Giave, which is only 1 km away, you can see the famous “Pedra Mendalza”, a characteristic and very rare relief about 100 meters high that in technical terms is called “neck” or volcanic neck. The material from which it is formed is a solidification of the magma present in the volcanic conduit of an extinct volcano. The hardened magma remained intact after the erosive agents consumed the volcano that hosted it, made of an evidently more friable material, while it preserved the solidified lava, of material more resistant to erosion. The “Pedra Mendalza” is part of the collective imagination of the population of Giave as a magical place full of mysteries, inhabited by fairies, or as a meteorite that rained down on the earth right in their territory.