Ussana rises on a wide plain surrounded by several hills, including Mount Zara and Mount Agutzu, not far from Cagliari. However, the center originated in Roman times; not far from it passed the military road that connected Caralis with Olbìa through Barbaria. The characteristic housing type is the so-called campidanese house with sa lolla, the loggia in front of the inner courtyard. These dwellings are still built of mud brick (làdiri), but beautiful squared sandstone ashlars are used for the entrance portals and in the wainscoting of the curtain walls. The parish church of St. Sebastian, with Baroque forms, stands in the center of the village on an earlier 15th-century building. On the outskirts, on a hill north of the town, stands the medieval double-nave church of San Saturnino, whose original layout, which has been remodeled several times, dates back to the first quarter of the 12th century. Inside this church are preserved a sarcophagus from the 3rd century A.D. and some column rocks, also from the Roman period, undoubtedly pertaining to the settlement that was in this area at that time.
In the countryside of the village are the ruins of several churches, which were already in a state of abandonment during the 19th century: these include St. Juliana, St. Genesius, St. Lawrence, St. Lussorio and St. Peter, which was the parish church of the vanished village of Janna. At the Church of St. Lawrence in 1949, the ruins of a Roman bathhouse, attributable to the 4th century AD, were unearthed, reused in part as a foundation for the worship building. Surrounding a large central room (probably the “tepidarium,” a room heated to a medium temperature) are several rooms. “calidaria” (heated halls), “paefurnia” (compartments and ovens for heating), “laconicum” (hall intended for steam baths), and “frigidaria” (halls equipped with cold bath tubs) are still visible. Ussana with about 370 hectares is one of the most important centers in Sardinia for grape growing.