The cork region of Gallura: trails and uses to discover

Have you ever thought that exploring a place also means getting to know its nature and territory? If you spend your holidays in Northern Sardinia, you will be enchanted by the cork oak forests and amazed by their many uses.

The cork oak is the queen of Mediterranean biodiversity, and in Gallura, it represents a symbolic plant. Present in Sardinia and six other countries, cork oak forests cover a significant portion of the Gallura hills. They are easy to spot while driving through the inland roads or along the coast, with their trunks particularly eye-catching in summer, as once the bark is stripped, they display a reddish colour, as if painted.

Cork in everyday life

Known since the Nuragic era for its insulating properties, used as flooring and to create handles for tools and objects, today it represents the primary resource of central Gallura for cork production.

During your holidays, you might hold one in your hand after uncorking a good Vermentino di Gallura DOCG, or be served a platter of cured meats or meat on a cork tray, as was done in the past. You might also encounter an elderly gentleman drinking from a fountain with a unique cork container, the nappedda, or with the uppu, a sort of cup with a long handle for drawing water. Some fishermen still use it as a line holder, rectangular in shape, a few centimetres thick, with a “waist” profile to allow the line to be wound around it.

Cork in everyday life: cork utensils and objects at the MEOC

Is it male or female?

One curiosity not everyone knows is that depending on the extraction phase, there is male and female cork. An oak takes 30 years to provide the first bark, called male cork, which is coarse and less valuable. After this first extraction, the same tree takes about 10 years to produce female cork, which is light and compact, mainly used in the production of bottle stoppers destined for worldwide distribution.

A cork oak, queen of Mediterranean biodiversity

The cork museum

As the cradle of cork, Gallura could not be without a museum dedicated to it. It is located in the small village of Calangianus, a hub of industrial cork stopper production linked to a long tradition of processing this raw material, just 35 minutes from the main coastal centres (Palau, Santa Teresa Gallura, Isola Rossa).

The museum is housed within an ancient Capuchin convent in the heart of the village, where you can observe the different stages of cork extraction and processing, the tools used by the Gallurese in everyday life, and discover all the curiosities about this natural resource inextricably linked to the territory. The MEOC, Oliva Carta Cannas Ethnographic Museum in Aggius, also dedicates a section of its permanent exhibition to ancient crafts, including cork processing.

The cork museum

Innovation and souvenirs

If you spend your holidays in Gallura, you will notice how cork characterises the habits of its people, not only in everyday life and work but also in new and unexpected areas with truly curious uses. One of the most innovative ideas has been developed by a Gallurese designer, Anna Grindi, who patented the fibre that originates from cork, called suberis, with which she makes unique, lightweight, and fashionable garments. It’s worth visiting her atelier in the centre of Tempio Pausania, where you can also find accessories, jewellery, and home decor items made strictly from natural fibre. But that’s not all: at the stalls of the evening markets in seaside towns, you can find artisans displaying traditional Sardinian jewellery, the classic button, and su coccu, paired with a cork strap or handmade decorative objects.


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