Birthplace of several renowned artists, including writers, poets, painters, sculptors, Nuoro hosts some of the most important museums inSardinia. It is considered an important cultural center of theregion[6] and it has been referred to as the "Sardinian Athens".[7] Nuoro is the hometown ofGrazia Deledda, the only Italian woman to win (1926) theNobel Prize in Literature.
View of Nuoro in winter fromMonte Ortobene.View of Nuoro
The earliest traces of human settlement in the Nuoro area (called " the Nuorese") are the so-calledDomus de janas, rock-cut tombs dated at the third millennium BC. However, fragments of ceramics of theOzieri culture have also been discovered and dated at c. 3500 BC.[8]
The Nuorese was a centre of theNuragic civilization (which developed in Sardinia from c. 1500 BC to c. 250 BC), as attested by more than 30 Nuragic sites, such has the village discovered in the countryside of Tanca Manna, just outside Nuoro, which was made of about 800 huts.[citation needed]
After the fall of theWestern Roman Empire, Sardinia was held first by theVandals and then by theByzantines. According to the letters ofPope Gregory I, a Romanized and Christianized culture (that of theprovinciales) co-existed with several Pagan cultures (those of theGens Barbaricina, i.e. "Barbarian People") mainly located in the island's interior.[9] As the Byzantine control waned, theJudicates appeared. A small village known asNugor appears on a medieval map from 1147. In the two following centuries it grew to more than 1000 inhabitants.[citation needed] Nuoro remained a town of average importance under the Aragonese and Spanish domination of Sardinia, until famine and plague struck it in the late 17th century.[10]
After the annexation to theKingdom of Sardinia, the town became the administrative center of the area, obtaining the title of city in 1836.[citation needed]
Since 1972 in Nuoro is active theIstituto superiore regionale etnografico (ISRE), which is an institution that promotes thestudy and documentation of the social and cultural life of Sardinia in its traditional manifestations and its transformations. In fact, in addition to managing museums and libraries, it organizes national and international events, including:theSardinia International Ethnographic Film Festival (SIEFF) and the Festival Biennale Italiano dell’Etnografia (ETNU) (Italian Biennial Festival of Ethnography).
Nuoro is home to the world's rarest pasta,su filindeu.[13][14] The name in Sardinian language means "the threads (or wool) of God" and is made exclusively by the women of a single family in the town, with the recipe being passed down through generations.
ARST, Azienda Regionale Sarda Trasporti provide regular connections to Cagliari, Sassari, Olbia, and to several minor centres in the province and the region.
Other private operators (including Deplano Autolinee, Turmotravel, Redentours) connects Nuoro to various cities and airports in the island.
