Fonni (‘Onne, Honne or Fonne in Sardinian) is an Italian commune of 3,579 inhabitants in the province of Nuoro in Sardinia. It is located in the ancient historical subregion of Barbagia di Ollolai. The area was inhabited in pre-Nuragic, Nuragic (presence of giants’ tombs and nuraghi) and Roman times, in which the mansio (post station) Sarabensis was founded.
In the Middle Ages it belonged to the Giudicato of Arborea and was part of the curatoria of Barbagia di Ollolai. At the fall of the giudicato (1420), it came under the rule of the marquisate of Oristano, and then came under Aragonese domination (1478). In 1604 it was incorporated into the duchy of Mandas, a fief of the Maza and then of the Tellez-Giron. In 1708, on the initiative of Father Pacifico Guiso Pirella, the shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Martyrs was built at the convent of the Minor Observant Fathers.
In 1821 the village was the scene of shepherds’ uprisings against the Edict of Closures (issued the year before by King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia). The village was redeemed from the last feudal lords in 1839 with the abolition of the feudal system.
