ESPORLATU

Located in central-northern Sardinia, Esporlatu is part of the Goceano region. Its territory has a rather irregular shape that extends transversally from north-west to south-east.

Different altitudes mean that Esporlatu contains all the territorial characteristics within the same municipality: mountainous, hilly and plain. The northernmost region, with reliefs ranging from about 730 to 961 meters above sea level of the highest peak, that of Monte San Martino, is known precisely as the “Montes” region. It is here that there are oak forests, especially holm oaks, mixed with various species of Mediterranean scrub, which once favoured the agropastoral economy both for the presence of acorns and of firewood itself for heating homes.

The central part of the territory, where the town was built, has hilly characteristics, more suitable for the cultivation of fruit trees, vineyards and olive groves, with altitudes that slope towards the south-east, in the region known as “Su Campu”, used for grazing and which reaches the lowest altimetric limit of about 200 meters above sea level in the short stretch of border with the territory of Bottidda marked entirely by the Tirso river.

Esporlatu borders to the north, east, up to the south-east with the territory of Burgos, and in this last stretch a watercourse called “Riu Mulinu”, a tributary of the Tirso, acts as a natural border. The long border that goes from the north-west, west, and south is instead with the territory of Illorai.

There are several watercourses present in the territory, and they are uniformly distributed from north to south.

The town of Esporlatu is surrounded by communication routes, with the provincial road 111 to the north and via Europa to the south. It is also crossed by the street via Brigata Sassari which from the north-east leads to the historic centre near the parish church of San Gavino and not far from piazza San Sebastiano, where the church dedicated to the Saint once stood and demolished in the 70s of the last century due to its precarious structural conditions.

This was the original historic centre, where you can still see narrow, paved streets and houses of more modest dimensions if compared to the new ones built more recently with the expansion of the town towards the north-east.

Some murals embellish the streets of the town centre, while there are two main squares in the town, where much of the social life also takes place.

The oldest written attestation of the name of this town is found in the Condaghe of San Pietro di Silki in which a person from “Isporlathu” is mentioned, to indicate his origin. In the various documents that have followed one another over time, different names of this village are found, including “Sporlachu”, “Sporlato”, “Sporlatu”, while the first written trace where the name of Esporlatu is found dates back to 1847.

As for its etymology, one theory derives it from the name “ispòrula”, which means “wild vine”, with obvious reference to a strong presence of this plant in the territory. A second theory instead makes the word Esporlatu similar to “exported”, with a reference to the historical period in which the inhabitants of the village in the locality “su Miale” moved further north, founding the village that gave rise to today’s town.

The economy of Esporlatu was once based on agriculture and livestock farming, today the latter is predominant with a strong presence of both sheep and cattle.

There are not many companies in other sectors present in the town, also given the proximity to other larger municipalities and which therefore see a movement of workers as employees and workers throughout the Goceano territory or in the provincial capitals.

The parish church of Esporlatu is dedicated to San Gavino the martyr and is located in the northern part of the town. The original structure of the sanctuary must have dated back to the medieval period, more precisely to the time of the construction of the Goceano castle, commissioned by Gonario, the chief of the Giudicato of Torres in the early 30s of the 12th century. The chief, since the castle itself did not have a place of prayer within its walls, used the small church of San Gavino as a palatine chapel, that is, as a private chapel for the exclusive use of the sovereign.

According to some studies, the church was modified, if not even rebuilt in the early 17th century, while to find the first written attestations on the building we have to wait until the second half of the 18th and 19th centuries in which there is talk of a sanctuary in precarious structural conditions, for which improvement works were required. The reconstruction of the building took place in the early years of the last century with the plan that can be seen today, while a recent restoration has given us a church with exposed stone walls that alternate with plastered walls, as is the bell tower itself.

The gabled façade is in exposed granite stones, and the large arched door is framed by blocks also in granite, as is the arched window above. The motifs of exposed stone and openings framed by granite blocks are also repeated on the side walls.

The square-based bell tower is now plastered and with the upper part having slits that house the bells and culminating in an apical pyramid with a cross on top.

Inside it is composed of a single nave divided by arches into three bays, there are also two chapels on each side.

The second place of worship in the Esporlatu area is located about 2 km from the town in a south-east direction and is the country church of Santa Barbara. In reality, this church is an unfinished work built in blocks and of which today only the side walls can be seen, but there is no roof. This construction dates back to the 60s of the last century and takes the place of an ancient pre-existing church that was demolished due to its precarious structural conditions.

A church that no longer exists but is still present in the memories of the inhabitants is that of San Sebastiano. The church dates back to the second half of the 18th century and for a certain period it was also the parish church given the unavailability of the church of San Gavino. As time passed, the church of San Sebastiano was used less and less for its functions and progressively abandoned, until for safety reasons, given the continuous collapses and subsidence, it was decided to demolish it completely around the 70s of the last century. In its place today there is a small square that maintains the same name and that with its shapes helps to maintain the memory of the pre-existing place of worship.

The archaeological sites in the territory of Esporlatu include about fifteen nuraghi and a tomb of the giants. Most of them are located in the northern part of the territory and the best known and best preserved is the nuraghe “Erismanzanu”. It is a single-tower nuraghe that reaches a height of 8 meters and is particular because there is a large holm oak that emerges from the upper part. Inside there is a corridor and a staircase that leads to the upper floors, several niches and a rather large and well-preserved main room, of which you can still appreciate the central fireplace.