Samassi is one of the most productive agricultural centers of Campidano, since its origins dedicated to the cultivation of cereals, vines, fruits, vegetables and, today the main crop is the artichoke. The town’s main festival is dedicated to the artichoke, and during the event the traditional Campidano houses, originally belonging to farming families, made of ladiri (unfired earth bricks) are opened. On a hill in the historic center stands out a Romanesque architectural ‘jewel,’ the small church of St. Geminianus, which arose on a 10th-century Byzantine building: some of its marble pillars were reused in the Romanesque layout. It was probably rebuilt in the 13th century in vulcanite from the quarries of Serrenti. Santu Millanu is celebrated in mid-September with sa festa manna, the most heartfelt, once the only feast day of the agricultural year. The major church is the Gothic-Aragonese parish church of the Blessed Virgin of Monserrato, built of tuff blocks in the late 16th century. The patron saint is celebrated on September 8. Other interesting churches are in honor of St. Margaret of Antioch, a Byzantine cult remembered in late July, and St. Joseph the Patriarch, erected in 1652. In the oasis of St. Isidore in late May there is a farmers’ festival with a procession of oxcarts and decorated tractors. Building-symbol are the elementary schools: The first settlements in the area date back to the Recent Neolithic (3500 B.C.): artifacts were found in the locality of Palatziu, while Palamuras was the site of a pre-Nuragic settlement. Of great resonance was the discovery at sa Mandara of two idols depicting the Mother Goddess, exhibited at the National Archaeological Museum in Cagliari. A copper dagger and a sandstone Nuragic turret were found in the remains of a nuraghe at Stani. In the late 1990s, municipal administrations launched a project to safeguard and enhance the value of earthen architecture; since 2001 it has been the headquarters of the International Association of Earthen Cities.