Autunno in Barbagia: Sardinia's Village-by-Village Autumn Festival of Open Courtyards
Autunno in Barbagia opens the courtyards of Sardinia's interior villages each weekend until 13 December. Which stops remain, and what to look for in each.
Most visitors meet Sardinia through its coastline. Autunno in Barbagia asks them to look inland instead, to the granite and chestnut country around Nuoro, where weekend after weekend each autumn the villages swing open the gates of private courtyards, cellars and workshops. The 2026 edition runs from 5 September to 13 December. As of 25 October the circuit is past its midpoint, but the stretch that remains includes some of its most characterful stops.
From one village’s idea to a regional circuit
The format began small. According to local coverage and Sardinia’s tourism portal, the idea took shape in Oliena in 1996 under the name Cortes Apertas, “open courtyards”: residents decided to open the courtyards of their homes to visitors. The event took its present name in 2001 and spread, one village per weekend, across the Barbagia and neighbouring districts. It is promoted today by Aspen, the special agency of the Nuoro Chamber of Commerce.
The sources do not agree on the arithmetic. L’Unione Sarda counts 33 stops in 32 municipalities (Nuoro participates through its hamlet of Lollove) and calls 2026 the twenty-fifth edition under the current name, while the Sardegna Turismo listing speaks of 31 towns and a twenty-sixth edition. The difference most likely lies in how towns, hamlets and anniversaries are counted, though none of the sources says so. Either way, the principle is constant: each village hosts for a weekend, typically from Friday evening to Sunday, and the programme belongs to the village rather than to a central organiser.
What an open courtyard actually offers
The festival is easy to mistake for a food fair, and the food is real: Pecorino Sardo and Fiore Sardo cheeses, cured meats from the island’s black pig, pane carasau, and sweets such as sebadas, papassinos and pardulas, along with Mandrolisai and Barbagia wines, all tasted and often bought directly from producers. But the more durable attraction is craft in progress. Idealista’s 2026 guide describes demonstrations of baskets woven from rushes and asphodel, handloom rugs and textiles, woodwork, leatherwork and wrought iron.
That working-hands quality is what connects the event to the heritage concerns of this magazine. A technique that is still performed in the household where it was learned is a living archive, and a festival that puts it on view gives the practitioners a reason to keep going. The courtyard format also changes the visitor’s role: you stand in somebody’s yard, in the season of the chestnut and the new wine, as a guest in a domestic space rather than a spectator at a staged show. Some of the hospitality is, of course, commercial, and crowds on busy weekends thin the intimacy. The smaller villages tend to keep more of it.
The stops that remain after 25 October
Idealista’s 2026 guide lists the following schedule for the final stretch. Dates in a festival of this size occasionally shift, so confirm against the official programme (Sardegna Turismo carries individual listings) before travelling.
- 31 October to 1 November: Desulo.
- 6 to 8 November: Mamoiada, the village associated with the Mamuthones, the black-masked figures of Sardinian carnival. On the circuit, artisans in some villages make the ritual wooden masks in front of visitors.
- 7 to 8 November: Ovodda.
- 14 to 15 November: Nuoro, Tiana and Ollolai.
- 21 to 22 November: Atzara.
- 28 to 29 November: Gadoni and Oniferi.
- 6 to 8 December: Fonni.
- 12 to 13 December: Ortueri, Orune and Seulo, closing the season.
One caution on sources: a different programme circulated for 2018, with different village assignments, and that older schedule still turns up in search results. Check the year. We could not confirm from the sources we consulted which village hosts the weekend of 24 and 25 October, so treat 31 October as the first firmly listed date still ahead.
Is it worth the trip?
The honest answer depends on what the visitor wants. Anyone seeking a packed list of attractions will be disappointed: villages in the interior are small, roads are winding, and a weekend in one place is the point. By late autumn the weather can be cold and changeable at altitude, and some courtyards may close earlier than posted. A reader who wants the opposite, a slower encounter with how a Mediterranean mountain society keeps its crafts, its table and its houses, will find the November and December stops, when the crowds are plausibly thinner and the fires are lit, among the most rewarding of the season.
There are practical reasons to choose one stop rather than several. Distances between Barbagia villages are short on the map and long on the road, parking at the edge of a village is often the only option, and the best hours are usually Saturday late morning and Sunday afternoon, when courtyards are fully staffed and the weekend has not yet tired. Ask before photographing people at work, buy something from the person who made it, and expect to eat more than you planned.
The festival also pairs naturally with other inland subjects this site has covered, from the polyphonic singing of the Barbagia towns to the stone monuments of the Nuragic highlands. Pick one village, arrive on Saturday morning, ask the person at the loom how long a rug takes to finish, and let the weekend be about that answer. The festival returns next September; the people who open their courtyards are, for the most part, the same ones who keep the crafts alive between editions.
Sources: Sardegna Turismo, Autunno in Barbagia · Idealista, “Autunno in Barbagia 2026: Sardinia beyond the coast” · L’Unione Sarda, “From September to December, Autumn in Barbagia: stops in 33 towns”