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Discovering
the Island
Main Attractions Edition
The first scratch map of Sardinia, you will discover 40 attractions of the Island. Each of them will make you know more local elements.
17 - NURAGHE
S. ANTINE
Torralba, almost 1,000 inhabitants, is a municipality in the historic region of Meilogu, in northern Sardinia, which lies on a territory of extinct volcanic craters.
The inhabited centre was built in the XI century, but the anthropization of the area dates back to the Neolithic period, favoured by the abundance of springs and streams. The Domus de Janas of Su Siddadu and Santu Jorzi date back to this period, between 3,500 and 2,700 BC.
The area became more frequented during the Nuragic Age, in particular between the Middle Bronze Age and the Iron Age (XVI-IX century B.C.). The abundance of evidence dating back to that period led to the area around Torralba being called the Valley of the Nuraghes. 30 nuraghi and 10 tombs of giants in an area of just 37 square kilometres.
The most important site is certainly the nuraghe Santu Antine, a fortress-castle overlooking the plain of Cabu Abbas. It is the most imposing nuragic construction after Su Nuraxi of Barumini. The structure, made with large blocks of basalt that reduce in size as you climb, is complex. The central tower, built around 1,800 B.C., is 17 metres high and has a diameter of 15 metres. It rises on three floors, separated by a spiral staircase. In the perimeter of the tower you can see nine slits placed at regular distance, to ensure internal lighting. Around the tower, between 1600 and 1450 B.C. a triangular bastion was built, whose side measures 40 metres and which has three towers with a diameter of 6 metres at the top. Outside the nuraghe itself there is a small village with the remains of 14 huts with a circular plan and houses of the Roman period with a rectangular plan.
Michael Hoskin, science historian and professor emeritus at Churchill college in Cambridge, described the nuraghe of Santu Antine as "the most sophisticated dry stone monument on earth's surface".
Torralba is also interesting for its religious architecture. You can visit, among others, the country church of Our Lady of Cabu Abas, built between the 12th and 13th centuries in Romanesque-Pisan style, and the parish church of St. Peter the Apostle, built in 1615 in Gothic-Renaissance style, inside which you can appreciate a wooden altar with statues of St. Peter, St. Joseph and St. Sebastian and an 18th century niche with paintings dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries.
Torralba boasts a whole series of attractions including:
- Valley of the Nuraghes Museum;
- Dolmen of Su Crastu Covaccadu;
- Church of Sant'Antonio
