Nuoro

Nuoro is a city and comune (municipality) in central-eastern Sardinia, Italy, situated on the slopes of the Monte Ortobene. It is the capital of the Province of Nuoro. With a population of 36,347 (2011), it is the fifth-largest city in Sardinia.
Birthplace of several renowned artists, including writers, poets, painters, and sculptors, Nuoro hosts some of the most important museums in Sardinia. It is considered the cultural capital of the region and referred with the name of “Atene sarda” (Sardinian Athens). Nuoro is the hometown of Grazia Deledda, the first and only Italian woman to win (1926) the Nobel Prize in Literature.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Sardinia was held first by the Vandals and then by the Byzantines. According to the letters of Pope Gregory I, a Romanized and Christianized culture (that of the provinciales) co-existed with several Pagan cultures (those of the Gens Barbaricina, i.e. “Barbarian People”) mainly located in the island’s interior. As the Byzantine control waned, the Giudicati appeared. A small village known as Nugor appears on a medieval map from 1147. In the two following centuries it grew to more than 1000 inhabitants.