Tortolì (; or ; ) is a town and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' in

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

, in the Province of Nuoro.

Geography

Tortolì is situated on the eastern coast of Sardinia. Its port and greatest hamlet is Arbatax, which has also an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

that once connected it to continental

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and the

European continent Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the eas ...

. To the north of it is Girasole and Lotzorai, to the west Villagrande Strisaili and Ilbono, and to the south Barisardo. To the east of the town is the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern Eur ...

History

Ancient history

The area of Tortolì was inhabited since the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

and then frequented by the

Phoenicians Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syrian coast. They developed a maritime civi ...

, Romans,

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

, and the Byzantines. It was part of the

giudicato of Cagliari The Judicate of Cagliari (, ) was one of the Sardinian medieval kingdoms, four kingdoms or judicates (''iudicati'', literally "judgeship") into which Sardinia was divided during the Middle Ages. The Judicate of Cagliari occupied the entire southe ...

between the 10th and 13th centuries. During the Spanish period the town was the head of the County of Quirra.

Modern history

In 1807 Tortolì became head of a province consisting of 27 villages, but in 1921 lost the capital status in favour of Lanusei. In 1859 it was incorporated into the Province of Cagliari. In 1926 it was incorporated into the province of Nuoro. In 1943 the port of Arbatax was bombed, killing 13 people.

References

External links

Cities and towns in Sardinia {{Sardinia-geo-stub