In San Teodoro village, in Gallura Area, on the eastern coast of Sardegna island, just above Olbia, further to archaeological detections some very ancient settlements have been discovered and are dated back to the neolithic eve.
San Teodoro, since time immemorial a strategic place from a military and commercial point of view, represents from the dawn of civilization ana important garrison in a geographically relevant position.
Furthermore, we remember Ghjilgólu, (commonly called Girgolu), the antique Portus Gregorius (Gregorian Gate) of the ancient Romans at the extreme north of the town, and la Pétra fitta, (the thick stone) to indicate a Roman milestone still at the feet of the hamlet of l'Alzoni.
Even in the Roman epoch a considerable strategic settlement near the Teodorian countryside, recorded as Coclearia and cited by the main historical source to reconstruct the viability of Roman Gallura: the Antoninian Itinerary of the third century A.D., during the age of the emperor Caracalla.
The available historical documents include an account of the plain of San Teodoro that confirms the military and commercial importance of its coasts; scholars agree that foundation of the modern city gate (still under construction) must have been the Roman gate of the city of Coclearia.
Other findings have allowed us to reconstruct the history of San Teodoro, once called Offolle during the Byzantine period; the same Teodoro, Roman soldier of eastern origin to whom our church is dedicated, lived during the Byzantine era under Galerio Massimiano. Unfortunately the historical sources regarding Offolle (also written Offudé, Ovodé), remain silent about a long period, from the 14th century until about 1600. It is certainly known that, failed by the Byzantine authority (around the 11th century), all of Sardinia was reorganized in Giudicati, or jurisdictions, each headed by a judge. Among them was the Giudicato of Gallura, the most famous leader of which was surely Nino Visconti, who made an appearance in Dante's Divine Comedy (Purgatory VIII, 52 – 54). In the modern era our old town seems to be populated by people from high Gallura and the south of Corsica, who with great courage establish themselves in the thick of the untouched woods. And so the civiltá degli stazzi, or civilization of the sheep pens, typically Gallurian, was born.
San Teodoro d'Ovidde is the name with which this strip of Gallura, congregated around a country church, has been known since about 1700. The fundamental nucleus of the town center is not, however, of an urban type, but actually rural: the community lived scattered in great settlements that acted as azienda agricola, farms and ranches, with, at the center, granite single family homes of the peasant farmers and shepherds. In other words, the Gallurian sheep pen was the original unit and vital fulcrum of these people, which survived the course of history until the 1950's.
It was exactly the aftermath of World War II and its great impulse toward renovation that signaled an important passage for our little home: dragged by the grand touristic investments of the Islamic Prince Aga Khan near the Smerelda Coast in the early years of the 1960's, San Teodoro saw an intense touristic development that brought overwhelming growth, which, thanks to the far-seeing administrators, continues even today.
Food and Wine
The soup (la zuppa)
the most important dish in the occasion of marriages and main parties, continues to be the first one even in prestigious restaurants.
Li chjiusoni (gnocchi): the use of that recipe for every first of august has a ritual meaning: the souls of death people pass along the town roads; on the windows and low heights you use to place a dish full of gnocchi with a bottle of wine.
Li pulicioni (i ravioli): in Gallura the filling of cottage cheese, eggs and lemon is added of sugar, in relation to the familiar census as you used to say.
Fascioli and taddarini (beans soup), Risu cu li pulpeddi (rice with sausage pulp).
Second dishes
La rivea: liver on the spit.
La colda: liver on the pan
Lu cascjufurriatu: melted cheese with honey or sugar.
La mazza frissa: cream and flour with honey or sugar
Bread
Lu pani budditu: the boiled bread with pasta in decorative forms
Dolci
Lu pani e sabba: tyopical cake for All Saints eve
Li papassini: Christmas cake
Li cucciuleddi: with honey or cooked moist
Li niuleddi: with honey, almonds and toasted pasta
L'acciuleddi: carnival's cake, fried sweet pasta with honey.
Li friscioli longhi: it is a first, second meal and cake used for carnival's eve
Li casciatini (smal cheese pies): Easter's cakes
L'uciatini: it is done with the rests of fat lard handling
How to get there
