Mamoiada's mask museum, sheepskins, cowbells and black wooden faces.

Mamoiada is a village of just under 2,500 inhabitants at 650 metres, a little over 15 km from Nuoro. It is known throughout Sardinia for its carnival, that of the mamuthones and the issohadores, one of the oldest on the island. The Museo delle Maschere Mediterranee, on Piazza Europa, explains it to those who cannot be here in January or February.

What you see

The visit begins with a sequence of images, texts, music and sounds about the village's traditions and its carnival. Then the Barbagia carnival room brings together some of the most important masks of central Sardinia, with the mamuthones at the centre: the hand-carved black wooden face, the sheepskins and the cowbells, about 30 kilos on the back, with which they advance at a slow, measured pace. Beside them, the issohadores, with red bodice, white mask and the soha, the rope with which they lasso spectators. The museum presents the theories that have tried to explain their origin.

The Mediterranean room compares this carnival with others from the Alps, the Iberian Peninsula and the Balkans: you will see that some characters recall winter masks from Spain. The most valuable piece is the oldest surviving mamuthone mask, from the early 19th century.

Hours and price

According to Sardegna Cultura, it is open every day from 10:00 to 18:00; the museum's website gives last entry at 17:30 and a ticket-office schedule that appears to exclude Tuesday, so confirm it before going if you are going that day. Admission costs €9; the reduced rate, €7, is for groups and schools, and other reductions can be asked about at the ticket office. From 14:00 it can be combined with the village's other two museums, the Cultura e del Lavoro and the MATer, of archaeology. Buying online adds a €1.50 advance-sale fee.

Guided visits

There are guided visits at fixed times, at 10:30, 12:30, 14:30 and 16:30, with no need to form a group, in Italian, English, French and Spanish. The museum also organises, with booking, visits to the mamuthones' historic bases and wooden-mask workshops.

Getting there

From Olbia, a little under two hours by car; from Cagliari, about two hours and three-quarters (estimated). Mamoiada is 20 minutes from Orgosolo and Fonni: it combines well with both on the same day.