San Salvatore – Spaghetti Western and a church with a secret

Behind a row of what looks like old, rickety garage doors lies a hidden, little gem of a place. Complete with friendly kitties, a saloon and underground chambers

The little village of San Salvatore is another of the hidden gems on Sardinia. Again as so many other places there are no good sign posts indicating that behind the row of what looks like insignificant garage doors there is a hidden treasure. 

Luckily for me I know people who have a knack for finding (and knowing about) these jewels. Stepping out of the car in a somewhat deserted, dusty car park on a sunny, but windy and cold spring day gave nothing away. I was even thinking ‘why on earth have we stopped here…..’, what could there possibly be to explore behind a row of what seemed like garages……

Next to the car park was a little bar/cafe/restaurant built in a style that resembles a Western saloon, complete with swinging saloon doors and an overbuilt porch (Griglieria Bar Abraxas). To me that is a curious thing here on Sardinia, far away from the wild west of America and Mexico.

Spaghetti Cowboys

We continued past the bar and walked in between some small houses built in a row. Turning the corner I was beginning to see why we had stopped here. Suddenly we seemed to have been transported back in time 200 years or so. A narrow, dusty street lined with tiny cottages, in different muted colours, with tiny doors and small windows and many with a little stone bench/seat outside. The place had a strong resemblance to the villages we saw in Western movies as children.

Everything was very quiet, no sign of life anywhere.

It was like you expected the tumbleweeds (just like in those western movies) to come rolling through the streets in a puff of dust.

I would not have been surprised if a couple of cowboys had stepped out of the houses and lined up for a dramatic, but quiet, duel in the middle of the narrow street while the village’s terrified inhabitants were hiding inside.

And indeed, I learnt that the streets had been the place for cowboys, although of the pretend kind. The little village have been used for making western movies, because of the resemblance to a Mexican village.

‘Scratch my chin human’

But the only living creatures I saw were some very friendly, small cats. One of them came running with its tail straight up like a cheerful: ‘hello human’ and rubbed its head on my legs while it purred loudly.

After a short ‘scratch-my-chin-human’ conversation with kitty, we continued walking down the deserted little street (followed by kitty). At the end, turn sharply right and you find yourself at the corner of what looks like a large village square. Not at all a fancy square, more like an open space with a tree, dusty sand and some stray grass growing here and there. You could almost hear Ennico Morricone’s spaghetti western music playing in the background.

At the other side of the square is the tiny little church with the same name as the village. The church building itself does not give anything away, but the church holds a surprise which is not clear until you step inside.

Hidden treasures and ancient traces

Just inside the door there are stairs leading down under ground, below the church floor. And here, you have stepped back thousands of years in time. In the centre, a well that dates back to prehistoric times with small, surrounding chambers. Some of these chambers have writings on them in Punic, Latin and Arabic so obviously this particular spot has been very special for a very long time. Indeed through many cultures and religions and different rulers of Sardinia.

San Salvatore is an astonishing little place where, in a way, you can say ‘nothing is as it seems’, or at least a ‘colourful pot of different types of history’.

The village is not signposted very well. But with modern sat navs it should be easy to find. It is definitely well worth a visit. The church alone justifies a stop, and the friendly kitties, and the need to look over your shoulder to see if the cowboys have stepped outside for a duel.

Lots of love,

Bee

Links:

https://www.sardegnaturismo.it/en/explore/sinis-peninsula

https://www.comune.cabras.or.it/node/83

Some facts:

San Salvatore is located on the Sinis peninsula not far from Oristano

San Salvatore is a middle age village, built above a nuragic (Bronze age) sacred area. It is close to the famous archaeological site of Tharros. In the 1960’s it became a movie set for a spaghetti western. San Salvatore has resemblances to Mexican villages, with its small houses and and streets.

The movie “Giarrettiera Colt” was shot there in 1968. But there was no future in the cinema business for San Salvatore. The interest in Spaghetti Westerns ended and the village, little by little, became a place for 

San Salvatore’s present appearance dates back to the Spanish dominance on Sardinia, and if you have time to explore, you can find curious little gems. Inside the village church; also called San Salvatore, you can see a prehistoric sanctuary in the underground chambers and, on the walls, inscriptions in different languages, Punic, Phoenician, Latin and even in Arab. So people lived here from the Neolithic era. There is a spring water well here, used during the Nuragic era. It was dedicated to the god Sid during the Punic time, and then by the Romans for the god Asclepius.

From the 4th century the site was transformed in a Paleo-Christian sanctuary dedicated to San Salvatore.

The church is surrounded by the “cumbessias”, the small 17th century houses built for pilgrims who come here between August and September every year to honour San Salvatore. When they do the village comes alive for a few days for the traditional event “la corsa degli scalzi” (literally the barefoot running).

(Thank you to Velasquez Logbooks for writing the facts)