According to legend, the judge of Torres Gonario II (1110-82), after returning from a crusade to the Holy Land, was surprised by a storm and turned to the Virgin Mary, promising to build a church in her honour on the first strip of land he saw, if he survived. A peak, filled with light, was his salvation and it was here that he built the sanctuary. In reality, the little church of Nostra Signora di Gonare, now a destination for pilgrims from all over the Island, was built later on, around the beginning of the 17th century.

The name of the mountain came from Gonario, halfway between the territories of Orani and Sarule and exceeding a thousand metres, consisting of three cone-shaped peaks: Gonareddu, Punta Lotzori and Gonare, where the most captivating Marian sanctuary in Sardinia stands. Here, where you can breathe in the healthy air, the landscape stretches from the gulf of Orosei to that of Oristano.