Once known as Forum Traiani, the main inland Roman city on the island, this town was founded in the late Republic era and became, under Emperor Trajan, a bustling market hub connecting the island’s inland communities with the Romanized populations along the Gulf of Oristano. Today, Fordongianus is a village of fewer than a thousand residents in the Barigadu area, famed as a wellness center thanks to a thermal spa utilizing salt-rich, thermally active springs that flow at 56 degrees Celsius year-round, offering health benefits known since Roman times. The village lies on the left bank of the fertile, lush Tirso Valley, where the warm, healing Aquae Ypsitanae Roman baths, dating back to the 1st century AD, are now an archeological attraction. Two bath structures are open to visitors: one preserves a rectangular pool with porticoed sides, originally covered by a barrel vault, while the other includes the changing room. The floors were once mosaic (traces of which can still be seen), and the ceiling was adorned with blue glass paste. Water was supplied through a network of channels, wells, and cisterns. The baths’ significance is underscored by two statues of the god Bes, a deity associated with health rituals, and a sacred area dedicated to the nymphs.
Fordongianus is also known for its quarries of red, green, and gray trachyte, used by local stonemasons to build and decorate houses. A well-preserved 17th-century Aragonese house, inhabited until 1978 and now a museum, is a rare example of Sardinian late-Gothic architecture. Not far away stands the 16th-century parish church of St. Peter the Apostle, built from red trachyte and renovated in modern times. A few kilometers from the village, near the Roman baths and amphitheater, is the small church of St. Lussorio, built around 1100 by the Victorine monks atop a paleo-Christian crypt. The muristenes (pilgrims’ lodgings) come to life with novena prayers during the festival in late August.
The Fordongianus area is rich in prehistoric sites: the Domigheddas and Gularis necropolises with domus de Janas (rock-cut tombs) set in beautiful natural surroundings, and the Paranu Antoni and Putzola nuraghes on the cliffs of the Maiori and Ollastra mountains, which have been shaped into bizarre forms by wind and water. The most significant nuragic heritage near Fordongianus, in the territory of Villanova Truschedu, is the Santa Barbara nuraghe, consisting of an original tower to which a smaller structure was added, connected by defensive walls. Beyond St. Lussorio lies the Balargianus area, with woods, orchards, and vineyards. The climb up Mount Grighine is thrilling, with quartz seams exposed along the way. In its valley, the Casteddu Ecciu plateau stands out with its steep walls, where the ruins of a nuraghe and a castle overlook a descent to admire the Su Crastu Ladu monolith.
