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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.
33 - MENHIR
CUILI PIRAS
Muravera is a municipality of 5,000 inhabitants located in the Flumendosa valley, in the historic Sarrabus region. The territory also includes Costa Rei, the largest stretch of sandy coast in eastern Sardinia, with its 10 kilometres.
The geographical position has meant that the territory of Muravera was for centuries prey to Saracen raids, and to cope with these pirate phenomena, numerous coastal towers were built under Spanish rule, including the Tower of Dieci Cavalli (Ten Horses), that of Salinas and that of Monti Ferru.
In Muravera you can admire the 16th century parish church of San Nicola of Bari, in late Gothic style. Inside there is an important marble altar, two gilded wooden retables in baroque style and a 1603 statue of St. Sebastian.
But the main attraction is certainly the megalithic complex Cuili Piras, built in the final Neolithic period (3,200-2,800 BC). It consists of 53 Menhirs arranged in alignments from three to five in a row, around a central grouping. The complex was studied during the archaeological census of 1985.
The menhirs are fixed deep in the ground, have a height ranging from 1 to 2 meters and are between 60 and 70 centimeters wide.
Besides that of Cuili Piras there are also the megalithic complexes of the Scalas nuraghe (43 menhirs, with alignments and circles identical to those of Stonehenge, in England) and that of Piscina Rei, which consists of about twenty menhirs.
These complexes are evidence of the level of evolution that the populations reached in the astronomical field. Through studies, aimed at identifying the purpose and methods of use of these constructions, it was concluded that the complexes are a kind of stone calendar, through which ancient peoples were able to determine, in relation to the positions of sunrise and sunset of the sun and moon, solstices, equinoxes, the beginning of the astronomical year and the new moons.
Muravera boasts a whole series of attractions, including:
- Domus de janas of Mount Nai;
- Pond of Colostrai;
- Baccu Arrodas Forest;
- Capo Ferrato;
- Ginestre beach;
- Ethnographic museum Sa domu de is candelajus.
Photo by Luca Galzerano
