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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.
27 - BARUMINI
Barumini, almost 1,300 inhabitants, is a town located in the historic region of Marmilla, one of the areas that best represent today the Nuragic and Prenuragic Sardinia.
Right at the entrance of the town stands the most famous and imposing archaeological site in Sardinia, the Nuragic complex "Su Nuraxi", dating back to the first phase of its construction in the 18th century BC. The complex testifies that this place must have been, in a remote past, a centre of great power, and like today a particularly fertile area.
The site, buried for centuries and guarded by the natural layer, was discovered and excavated by the local archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu in the years between 1950 and 1957. This discovery was such an important event that it aroused great attention and sensitivity on the part of the competent authorities and scholars, who used this new material to rewrite the island's nuragic history.
The complex is particularly extensive, and consists of a massive central tower (over 18 meters high) consisting of 3 superimposed chambers. Its blocks, of basalt, are arranged dry and rise in height in concentric overlaps, thus outlining the shape of a truncated cone. The tower was probably built to be the home of a single family, so its first function was to control and monitor the grazing and agriculture of the vast fertile areas downstream of the complex.
The events, the social, political and military progress of the period had an effect on the consequent construction phases. A wall complex consisting of 4 towers (14 mt. high) was added to the central tower. Still in a later phase a further and extended wall was added to complete the protection not only of the majestic complex of the tower, but also of the village that had risen in the meantime.
The village, at least that part that can be recognized today, consists of more than 50 circular huts, typical forms of the Nuragic villages of the period. There are, however, well-founded reasons to believe that in reality the number of dwellings was greater; Lilliu himself hypothesized a population that could have reached 1000 residents.
In later periods, the complex underwent further urban integration, such as the sophisticated sewage system. Like many Nuragic settlements, the one in Barumini was occupied first by the Punic and then by the Romans.
Nuraxi was part of a network of nuraghi that interacted with each other. As evidence of the presence of such a system of interaction, another trilobate nuraghe, "Su Nuraxi 'e Cresia", was discovered inside today's inhabited centre and 400 metres from Su Nuraxi, which came to light during the restoration of Casa Zapata.
Barumini boasts a whole series of attractions including:
-Archaeological museum;
-Church of the Immaculate Conception;
- Church of San Francesco;
- Church of San Giovanni;
- Church of Santa Lucia;
- Museum of the Launeddas.
