Francesco Pinna

Francesco Pinna was an Italian journalist and photographer from Oristano, Sardinia, who spent nearly five decades documenting the life of his city, most notably its historic Sartiglia festival, through both his camera and his writing. He died on 1 November 2026 at the age of 73, after weeks in hospital in Sassari for a sudden health problem that worsened in his final hours.

Born in Nuraxinieddu, a hamlet of Oristano, Pinna began his career in the late 1970s working with the private local radio stations that were springing up in Oristano at the time. He soon moved into print and photography, joining L'Unione Sarda first as a photographer before taking up reporting duties, where for years he covered the courthouse beat, following criminal and civil proceedings at Oristano's Palazzo di Giustizia. He later worked in local television at Tele Nova, becoming a familiar voice and face in Oristano's media landscape, before settling at La Nuova Sardegna in the late 1990s, where he worked simultaneously as a writer and photographer. Alongside this he served for years as the Oristano province correspondent for the national news agency ANSA.

Pinna was best known locally for the thousands of photographs he took over his career, many of them chronicling the Sartiglia, the centuries old equestrian festival that is central to Oristano's identity. Colleagues said that, although journalism and photography demand a certain boldness, Pinna himself was by nature unassuming and reserved, a quiet presence who nonetheless had an eye for the decisive moment. His work gave the city a visual record of its courtroom dramas, its civic life and its most cherished traditions over more than four decades.

News of his death on the evening of 1 November 2026 prompted an outpouring of tributes from Oristano's institutions and his professional community. The Municipality of Oristano, the Fondazione Oristano, the Comitato Sartiglia and the various Gremi and cavalieri associations linked to the festival all issued statements of condolence, praising his decades of attention to the city's history and traditions. His former colleagues at L'Unione Sarda, La Nuova Sardegna and ANSA also paid tribute, describing him as a respected and well liked professional known for his fairness and dedication.

Francesco Pinna's funeral is due to take place on Tuesday 3 November 2026 at 3pm, at the parish church in Nuraxinieddu, the hamlet where he was born. The precise medical cause of his death has not been made public beyond the description of a sudden health problem that led to his hospitalisation in Sassari in the weeks before he died.