To visit Santu Antine – The King of Sardinia under Nuragher

Writer: Helena Bergström

Visiting Santu Antine in Sardinia is surprisingly exciting. We did not have such great expectations, but then from there we went with historical fascination and a lot of new knowledge.

Santi Antine På Sardinien

Nuraghen Invoke In Sardinia, about 3500 years old. It is one of the largest and most perhaps, reserved Nuraghs in Sardinia and sometimes it is called “Sardinia’s King under Nuragher”.

Santu Antine is located in Torralba, in the northwestern part of Sardinia.

What is Nuragher?

So what is “Nuragher” real? Well, Nuragher is massive stone tower, built without mortar, of huge boulders that are often several tons heavy. These towers are completely unique for Sardinia and are nowhere else in the world in the same form. The towers were built under the Nuraghek culture (about 1800 – 500 BC), although some were later adjusted and used. Nowadays there are around 7,000 well -known Nuragher in Sardinia.

But why did you really build Nuragher? You certainly do not know this, but the most important theories are that it may have been defense towers, housing for chiefs and/or ceremonial/religious places.

To visit Santu Antine in Sardinia

There are, as I said, a lot of Nuragher in Sardinia and we have visited Santu Antine, who is one of the largest and most visited Nuraghels. Here is even a small visitor center with souvenirs. And yes, you have to solve a ticket to visit Santu Antine.

At first we thought that 10 euros per person sounded a bit expensive, but that was when we still thought we would just watch a stone stack from outside. After the visit we were completely at ease with the ticket price, which also gives access to a museum in the area that we did not visit.

Santu Antine – A 3500 year old building

Nuraghen Santu Antine dates from somewhere between 1600 and 1500 BC, that is, the center of the Bronze Age. The building is therefore from a relatively early part of the Nuragher culture, which existed until around the 20th century BC.

An image in the area shows what the pompous Nuragn might look like when it went. It is absolutely incredible that they could build such powerful buildings for so many thousands of years ago!

Around the main building was probably a whole village with housing for “ordinary people”. However, most is not excavated, but is hidden under the surrounding fields.

Santu Antine – A fascinating building

In the distance, the Nuraghen Santu Antine didn’t look so pompous, but when we went in, we quickly became aware of how incredibly powerful it is. There is a central main tower and also three surrounding towers. In the towers there are different rooms on top of each other, which in turn are surrounded by corridors and extra rooms.

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It is amazing to walk around, and in a sense it feels like it never ends. There are always new corridors, new rooms, new floors …

It is also fascinating to see the building technology. How did they succeed in getting the stones in place? And how did they get it so stable? In fact, there are still large parts of the towers, again after 3500 years, wind and human activity.

The corridors, stairs and rooms feel incredibly solid. Lamps and some handrails have been installed for the modern visitor. All the other was built by a civilization in the Bronze Age.

There is a courtyard with a well and long external corridors with a view of the surrounding landscape.

How did the people look like here? How did their society work? Where did they find and what dreams did they have? Yes, there are many thoughts that spin when visiting Santu Antine …

More to see and in the neighborhood

Based on Santu Antine you can continue to Alghero, where you can, for example, make a boat excursion to Neptune caves. You can also go to Stintino, where there are many beautiful beaches (but where it is very busy to park). Moreover, we can recommend a visit to the Superfine and Charming City of Bosa!

Do you want to visit Santu Antine in Sardinia?

Do you want to visit Santu Antine in Sardinia, or perhaps another of the thousands of Nuragher of the island? Have you previously kept the Nuragher culture, or is it new to you? Do you like history?