Pubblicato venerdì, 30 novembre 2007
Ultimo aggiornamento lunedì, 7 settembre 2009

History and origins

Seneghe is a village with less than 2000 inhabitants, situated on the south-eastern side of the Montiferru, 305 mt. above sea level. Seneghe’s mountain, called “Sos Paris”, is 800 mt. above sea level. It has 1.000 hectares of forest, consisting mainly of olm oak trees, that makes it one of the most beautiful Sardinian oak forests.

Information on these pages comes from the book “Seneghe, vita di un antico borgo rurale” and from Internet sources. We made this text available on Wikipedia, aiming to share accurate information with the so-called free encyclopedia users.

Origins of the name

Historian and archaeologist Giovanni Spano ⁽¹⁾ stated that Seneghe’s toponym derives from the phoenician scin, meaning ‘tooth’ because of the large mountain ridge resembling teeth above the village. Spano pointed out that another village, that was destroyed, in the ancient diocese of Dolia and a nuraghe in the Suni countryside have had the same name. He makes reference to the biblical Mount Sinai, whose name would have meant toothed as well.

On the contrary, Monsignor Giovanni Antonio Deriu, parish priest in Seneghe from 1885 to 1927, objected that the root sen in Seneghe’s toponym is shared with many other Sardinian places like Senis, Senorbì, Sennori: but none of them can be related to something toothed. In Seneghe’s dialect, the root s’ena, or bena, meaning vein or strip of fertile soil, is widespread among the local countryside place names. For instance, S’ena ‘e Bobboi (Salvatore’s land), Beneidi (land of vines), Benalonga (long strip of land), S’ena ‘e su pirastru (land of wild pear trees) Benandria (Andrew’s land).

The final part of Seneghe’s name (ghe) has had different written forms throughout history and depending on which document we find Senege, Sehenes or Senecae. Then, during the Aragonese and Spanish domination and the first century of Sabaudian domination, the village was called Senegui or Senegue in public acts and notarial deeds. Since the second half of the XIXth century the toponym was permanently set to Seneghe.

The final part of the town’s name ghe would come from the Hebrew letter ghimel, from which the name ghil derives, meaning “happy” or “high”. According to this interpretation, Seneghe would mean S’ena (land) + ghe (high), related to its geographical position on a hilltop.

Deriu wrote in his manuscript: “It suits Seneghe fine the name of strip of fertile soil, very rich in wheat, olive , vineyards, chetsnuts, pastures, with mountains full of cork and olm oaks, irrigated by rich springs of pure water”.

History

Seneghe’s territory is made of uplands, which inspired the construction of many strategic buildings in the past called nuraghe. Groups of nuraghe with many towers, fortresses and ruins are visible in many places. There are approximately 100 of these buildings, some of them are still in good conditions, while others are almost destroyed. In addition, there are several ancient tombs: they are structures of stone, known as “tombs of giants”, dolmens, menhirs, and betili ⁽²⁾ . Some examples include the beautiful giant’s tomb of Serrelizzos, S’omo de sas Zanas ⁽³⁾ , and the nuragical site of S’Issizzu, with a sacred well, Mesone Majore, Zippiriu.

Phoenicians and Romans showed a great interest for the area around Seneghe. This is exemplified by the great number of archaeological finds, such as tools, objects and foundations of buildings. In the Archeological Museum of Cagliari there’s a beautiful woman’s head made of marble, founded in 1880 near the village. A precious gilded bronze medallion and a little bronze lion head were found in the same site.

Traces of paving stones from a Phoenicians country road,that leads from Cornus to the proto-Sardinian village of Serrelizzos can still be seen. The road was strategic for transportation of goods from the sea to Montiferru (called at the time Monti Menomeni).

There are many traces left by Romans too: the most important is the thermal spring of Sa Funtana Fraigada. Roman objects and tools have been found in Barili, Cannas de Piscamu and Zippiriu.

The coins found show us the periods when the territory was inhabited: bronze coins with Astarte’s spikes, others with the Pater Sardus ⁽⁴⁾ , sesterzi and assi (Roman currencies) coined by different Roman emperors, and little bronzes of the late Empire. These finds show persistent signs of life in the area around Seneghe over the centuries.

In the current built-up area of Seneghe there were ancient people since the time of protosardi. Seneghe was at a confluence point for of territories and the inhabitants had to fight against countinuous invasions. As time passed, many people settled permanently, giving birth to the Villa de Seneghe. The ruins of a nuraghe were discovered in 1947, during renovations of Pili’s house on via Roma. Remains of huge walls were found in the location of the parish church: probably the remains of an ancient place of worship, that developed into a Christian temple that finally became the present building.

After 1000 A.C. reference to Seneghe can be found in the Condaghe, the huge book where Santa Maria de Bonacatu’s monks in Bonarcado registered the boundaries of their possessions. In 1191 Santa Maria’s church is noted as being part of the religious territory of the mitria arborense, under Pietro, the first archbishop of Oristano.

In the solemn peace act signed between Eleonora of Arborea and the king Giovanni IV of Aragona, the 24th January 1388, eight representatives from Seneghe were mentioned, among them the major Troisco Manca and other jurors.

Chronicles from 1692 indicate that more than five hundred inhabitants died from the plague. Thanks to the intervention of Martyr St. Sebastian ⁽⁵⁾ the pestilence ceased, and the grateful people chose him as the village patron, whereas the parish church remained the same, named after the Immaculate Conception.

From the XVIIIth century many of Seneghe’s citizens gained access to education, thanks to scholarships to the Convitto Nazionale di Cagliari. Around 1850 the village population was 2150 inhabitants; 650 of them were farmers, 90 shepherds and 50 were applied to other trades.

By Raymond Orrù and Stefano Flore. Translated by Nicoletta Feurra.

1. Born in Ploaghe in May 1850, died in Cagliari in April 1878.
2. Archaic stone sculpture in the form of a truncated cone.
3. “House of fairies”
4. Sardus, in literary tradition, came to Sardinia from Libya with a crowd of settlers, aiming to invade the island (hence the name Sardegna, from its first invader). According to old texts Sardus would have been a “Libyan” hero who became the founder and father, or god, of Sardinians.
5. The celebration of the saint is celebrated the 20th January