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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.
30 - TEMPIO DI
ANTAS
Fluminimaggiore is a town in the Iglesiente region with almost 3000 inhabitants, in south-western Sardinia. Here, precisely in the valley of Antas, about ten kilometres from the town, there is one of the greatest monuments of Sardinian antiquity: the Temple of Antas.
The archaeological area is very rich and is the result of the overlapping of Nuragic settlements and subsequent Punic and Roman passages. The Roman temple, dedicated to the adoration of the eponymous God Sardus Pater Babai, stands on the remains of a Punic sacred structure, dedicated to the God Sid Addis, warrior and hunter, a structure built in turn in a place of worship already in the Nuragic age.
The area experienced its heyday in Roman times. The Roman temple was built at the behest of Augustus and later restored under the empire of Caracalla (213-217), as evidenced by the epigraph on the pediment. The inscription reads: "Emperors Caesari M. Aurelio Antonino. Augusto Pio Felici templum dei Sardi Patris Babi vetustate conlapsum... A... restituendum curavit Q Coelius or Cocceius Proculus". In honour of Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, Pius Felix, the temple of the god Sardus Pater Babi ruined for antiquity had Quintus Caelius (or Cocceius) Proculus restored.
Of the Roman temple, built with local limestone boulders, remain three shelves of the steps, partly reconstructed. On the staircase there are four columns at the front and two on the sides. These columns are 8 metres high, with a smooth shaft, attic bases and Ionic capitals.
The temple cell is 11 metres deep. The floor was covered with a white mosaic, of which some remains can be seen. At the bottom is the Adyton, the cultural area, with two rooms equipped with water tanks for purification rites.
The temple was discovered in 1836 by General La Marmora and restored in 1967.
About twenty metres from the Roman podium are the remains of a necropolis dating back to the early Iron Age. In one of the tombs was found the small bronze of a naked male deity holding a spear, it was perhaps the Sardus Pater or the Punic god Sid.
From the archaeological site there is a Nuragic path, then a Roman road of which some fragments remain, which leads to Su Mannau, a cave that creeps for 8 kilometers into the subsoil of the Iglesiente. It is a karstic complex formed 540 million years ago. It is, according to the Italian Touring Club, one of the ten most beautiful caves in Italy. Inside, one of the many halls was a hypogeic temple, a sacred place where the cult of water was practiced. From the suspended walkways that cross the cave you can observe limestone formations with unique shapes, stalactites, stalagmites, crystals and small lakes.
Fluminimaggiore boasts a number of attractions including:
- Su Zurfuru Mine;
- Ethnographic Museum;
- Portixeddu Beach;
- Church of Sant'Antonio di Padova.
