Arbus, Sardinia


Arbus is a comune in the Province of South Sardinia in the Italian region of Sardinia. Located in the southwest coast of the island, Arbus is known for its coastline, the Costa Verde, and for several archeological sites, such as the mines of Montevecchio. With an area of, Arbus is the second largest municipality in Sardinia.

History

Arbus has been inhabited by man since the ancient Neolithic. It includes a mountain district which separates Medio Campidano from the sea. There are numerous tombe dei giganti in the district of Capo Pecora, and in other areas of territory.

Geography and geological features

Located about northwestward of Cagliari along the southwestern coastline, Arbus on December 31 2004 had a population of 6,895. From a geological point of view, the Arbus region is dominated by low-grade metamorphics intruded, in late-Variscan times, by granodioritic and leucogranitic magmas forming the so called "Arbus igneous pluton". This pluton emplaced at 304 ± 1 Ma, along a thrust surface separating a pile of allochtonous tectonic units from the Foreland. This age, inside the correlated error, is undistinguishable from 305 ± 13 Ma obtained with Rb/Sr isochron for granodiorites. Remarkably, in the wide compositional spectrum of late-Variscan magmatism from Sardinia, the Arbus intrusives are quite distinctive. Indeed, granodiorites contain ortopyroxene and clynopyroxene in addition to ubiquitous dark mica, while leucogranites show often sub-vertical centimetric cloths of Fe-cordierite with quartz intergrowths or greenish to bluish tourmaline.
Arbus is known for its coastline, known as Costa Verde. For both 2002 and 2003, the wide Arbus coasts were awarded "5 sails" by the Legambiente and Touring Club. Beaches include, from north to south, Capo Frasca, Pistis, Torre dei Corsari, Porto Palma, Babari, Funtanazza, Gutturu Flumini, Portu Maga, Piscinas, Scivu and Capo Pecora.
Piscinas is a sandy beach with a large dune system spanning approximately. Is considered one of the biggest dune systems in Europe.

Main sights

Main sights of Arbus include: