History

A fascinating journey through the millenniums

The history of Villasimius goes back many years as the ruins of the fourth and third millennium bc found here go to prove.

This place has a fascinating history also due to its strategic location which was ideal to control rich trade exchanges in the Mediterranean that attracted many Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Spanish, Romans and pirates through the years.

From the Phoenicians to the Romans

The Phoenician ships arrived from south Sardinia during the seventh century bc especially to control the traffic of precious metals. Soon enough steady settlements started to grow around Villasimius, like in Nora for instance where the first Phoenician city of the Island was built.

Villasimius became an inescapable cross point for Phoenician cities and an important shelter for many sailors from the strong Mediterranean winds, like the northwest wind.
The Carthaginians conquered the island around the sixth century bc and in 540 bc.Villasimius was attacked.

After this event, the Roman empire came along wanting to conquer the whole of Sardinia and what used to be a simple agglomerate of houses placed here and there, became an actual city that even had its own spa.

This settlement is known as Carbonara, because its population was particulary dedicated to the production of coal and wood.

From the Middle ages until today

During the Middle ages under the Spanish dominion Carbonara went through a difficult moment of strong instability. Because of the recurrent incursions of Arabs and Barbarians from North Africa, the King of Spain Philip II had defensive towers built on the viewpoints of the island although they proved to be useless against the many pirate attacks.

Because of these many incursions, the inhabitants moved more towards the innerland leaving the village until 1800.

In 1820 the marquis of Quirra, last land owner of these lands, encharged knight Antonio Incani to check out the area and inspect it.

During his discoveries, Incani was enchanted by the extraordinary beauty of the landscape and asked for the lands in concession thus investing important amounts of money to rebuild the village that was soon re-populated and in 1862 was named Villasimius, although we still do not know why this particular name was chosen.

For years Villasimius remained a heaven on earth, isolated from the rest of the world: there were in fact very few connections with the capital and the only road it was possible to travel along was finished only in the fourties, fiftees. The main activities of its inhabitants were almond and wheat cultivation although the extraction of granite developed pretty soon too.

Fishing never became a source of income for this sea location although, starting from the sixties, fishing lovers used to meet in Villasimius that was considered a special destination for game fishing. Soon enough touism developed a lot proving Villasimius’ incomparable beauty and charm that make it one of Sardinia’s and Italy’s most beautiful natural and marine oases.

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