Armungia

Public spaces, housing and memory

Along the streets of the town you can find several examples of stone houses, typical of an agro-pastoral economy. The town is historically structured in neighborhoods ( bixinaus ), organized around a road that within them constitutes the hub. The most central and frequented places of the town were in the past the town hall square ( Pratz'e s'Ofitziu ), the small square of the public well ( Pratz'e Funtana ) and the church square ( Pratz'e Cresia ).
The town hall square was created at the end of the 19th century following the construction of the old town hall, whose spaces now house the ethnographic museum “Sa Domu de is Ainas”. Daily animated by women and children who went there for water, the little square of the well had the value of a modern social space overlooking the wine shop and other important artisan workshops , such as the blacksmith’s, home to an important activity of iron working and shoeing of working animals. The church square was also the square of celebrations and dances .

Among the most important buildings are the Casa del segretario , the manor house that belonged to the Dessì family and now home to the “Emilio and Joyce Lussu” historical museum , the birthplace of Emilio Lussu, still inhabited today by his heirs, and the old barracks, opened in the early 1920s inside the ancient home of Sebastiano Lussu, Emilio's uncle.

From the Judicial Age to Spanish Domination

During the Middle Ages , Armungia was part of the Giudicato kingdom of Cagliari , within the curatoria of Galilla, so called in reference to the Galillenses, ancient inhabitants of the Roman era. After the Catalan-Aragonese conquest of Sardinia in 1324 and the long conflict with the Giudicato of Arborea, on 18 August 1456 the village was granted as a fief to the Zatrillas family, together with other centers of the Gerrei.

During the period of Spanish domination , the parish church of the Immaculate Conception was built, whose original structure, in late Gothic style, dates back to the end of the 16th century.

Armungia is also known for being the birthplace of Emilio Lussu , born here on 4 December 1890: a key figure of the “Sassari” Brigade during the First World War, anti-fascist politician, constituent father and writer.