Nuoro's cathedral, dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows (Santa Maria della Neve), stands at the edge of the old town near the Piazza Santa Maria. The current neoclassical building dates from the early nineteenth century, replacing an older church on the same site. The interior is relatively plain by Italian standards but contains a few noteworthy paintings and the tomb of Sebastiano Satta, one of Sardinia's most celebrated poets.
The cathedral square is one of the social focal points of the old town. On summer evenings, the space fills with Nuoresi taking the passeggiata — the early evening stroll that is a living institution in every Italian town. It is a good place to understand how genuinely different the inland Sardinian character is from the coast: unhurried, slightly reserved, fiercely local.
The National Archaeological Museum of Nuoro (Museo Nazionale Archeologico Giorgio Asproni) is directly adjacent to the cathedral and worth combining into a single visit. It holds finds from the nuragic civilization — the mysterious Bronze Age culture that built the stone towers scattered across Sardinia — along with material from subsequent Phoenician and Roman occupation.