THE MUSEUM SYSTEM OF SANTADI

The Museum System of the Municipality of Santadi brings together the Civic Archaeological Museum, the “Sa Domu Antiga” Ethnographic Museum and the Archaeological Area of Pani Loriga, involved in a unitary management by Sémata soc. coop. which guarantees common qualitative, exhibition, informative and promotional standards.

The “Sa Domu Antiga” Ethnographic Museum

The “Sa Domu Antiga” Ethnographic Museum, which is housed in a building in the centre of the town dating back to the early twentieth century, reflects the typological and structural characteristics of the traditional farmhouse of the Lower Sulcis area, consisting of a building for residential use and a rear courtyard with a typical well and two loggias. The finds are included in the Museum according to an attribution that is functional to give back the cross-section of life of which they are testimony. The furnishings and objects, organised according to thematic paths, document the economy and traditional ways of life, allowing you to deepen the local cultural identity and the territory. In the lollas there are various exhibition sections dedicated to bread-making, wheat processing, agricultural activities and the craftsmen of the blacksmith and carpenter, while a small room next to the house hosts the thematic itinerary of wine.

Santadi, via Mazzini 37; tel. 348 8866797

Guided tour duration: 50 min

The Civic Archaeological Museum 

The Civic Archaeological Museum of Santadi, which is conceived as a ‘Museum of the territory’, houses the finds from the main archaeological sites of the Lower Sulcis area in an exhibition organised according to the chronological succession of the different civilisations that followed one another from the Neolithic to the Roman and early Middle Ages. Among the museum collections, the votive deposit of the Su Benatzu cave in Santadi stands out as the most important cave sanctuary in Nuragic Sardinia. There are thousands of votive offerings, which are significant for the long continuity of attendance: ceramics (found in heaps reproduced in the museum set-up) and metal objects, including daggers and the bronze Cypriot-type tripod. Multimedia facilities, smartphone applications and audio guides diversify the methods of use, facilitating the contextualisation of the finds and sites that are testimony to the evolution of settlement models over time.

Santadi, via Umberto I, 17; tel. 0781 954203 – 348 8866797

Guided tour duration: 50 min

The Archaeological area of Pani Loriga. 

Located 2 km from the town of Santadi (SU), the vast hill of Pani Loriga covered with centuries-old olive trees, provides a fundamental contribution to the reconstruction of the ancient human settlement in the Sulcis area, thanks to a thousand-year-old presence documented by Neolithic, Nuragic, Phoenician and Punic archaeological evidence up to the sporadic Roman and early medieval attestations. The site, which is known both for the archaeological aspects and for the extraordinarily preserved environmental context, allows you to retracein a charming landscape context about6.000 years of history of the territory, from the Neolithic necropolis of domus de janas type up to the Diana nuraghe on the top of the plateau, to arrive to the more than 150 Phoenician burials investigated so far. And continuing, the Punic phase, with the hypogeal necropolis but above all the urban architecture, where the absence of building superimpositions of a subsequent period has preserved the wall structures of a city that dominated the hinterland and the sea in exceptional conditions.

Santadi, Località Pani Loriga snc.

Guided tour duration: 90 min

Info and reservations: 

coopsemata@gmail.com

mobile: 348 8866797

THE MUSEUM OF MEDITERRANEAN WEAVING AND MUSEUM OF GENOESE ORIGINS IN CASTELSARDO 

The Museum of Mediterranean weaving. 

The Museum of Mediterranean weaving, abbreviated as MIM (Museo dell’intreccio Mediterraneo), located within the fortress of the Doria family, is an ideal place to preserve the ancient tradition of weaving.

The museum itinerary is divided into nine rooms developed on two floors.

The weaving of the city of Castelsardo is configured as an unwritten ancient knowledge, but which is still today documented and handed down by the inhabitants of the medieval village to the generations to come. In the streets of the city it is possible to meet basket makers, who are historical and modern figures, weaving the dwarf palm, sea hay and raffia outside the door of their homes. Their artefacts, exhibited to tourists and passers-by, reflect the techniques, shapes and decorations of the ancient weaving tradition of Castelsardo but also recall the personal tastes and innovative talent of the local contemporary craftsmanship.

Castelsardo is one of the most picturesque towns in Sardinia, above all because of its historic centre, which is perched on a promontory overlooking the sea. It has changed its name over the centuries, depending on the political forces that controlled it, using it as a defensive stronghold and a strategic point of control not only of the territory but also of the sea routes passing through Sardinia.
The fortified city was born with the name of Castelgenovese, as a possession of the Ligurian Doria family. After having formed one of the bulwarks in the fight against the Catalan-Aragonese invasion forces in the fourteenth century, it was conquered by them and became Castellaragonese, and then took on the current name of Castelsardo. The continued use as a fortified city has meant that over the years the defensive structures have also changed, from simple towers to more complex bastion defence systems.
The walls that enclose the inhabited centre appear as a series of bastions and towers, some of which overlooking the sea, connected by a mighty wall. The masonry technique is not accurate: in fact, mixed stones are used, which are summarily worked, with the use of squared cantons to give solidity to the edges.

The Museum of Genoese origins. 

The MOG, Museum of Genoese Origins (Museo delle Origini Genovesi), is dedicated to the history of the city of Castelsardo. It represents a link between the Museum of Mediterranean weaving, within the fortress of the Doria family, and the Diocesan Museum, within the Crypts of the Cathedral of Sant’Antonio Abate.

The building that houses the MOG is an old Franciscan convent subsequently used as a civil residence and, until a few decades ago, used as an artistic workshop by the renowned painter of Castelsardo Giovanni Cau.

The entire museum itinerary, which is still in the final stages, illustrates to its visitors the sites and monuments of cultural interest in the area of Castelsardo, through explanatory panels, proposing itself as a promotional portal for the Anglona area.

The museums of Castelsardo are open at all times year-round, every day of the week.

Guided tour duration: 60 min

Info and reservations: 

coopsemata@gmail.com

mobile: 33886214113

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AREA OF SCERÌ IN ILBONO

The Nuraghe Scerì and archaeological area

The archaeological area of Scerì is located in the eastern part of the territory of the Municipality of Ilbono, about 7.5 km from the town. In the area there are archaeological remains ranging at least from the recent Neolithic (V-IV millennium BC) to the Nuragic period (II-I millennium BC), inserted in an environmental context characterised by granite tafoni (i.e. cavity features that develop in either man-made or natural exposures of granular rock) and luxuriant Mediterranean scrub.

Within the site there is a complex type tholos nuraghe, located on the top of a granite outcrop at about 130 m asl, in a position of wide visual dominion over the rio Baunuxi. It consists of a central tower surrounded by a trefoil bastion that incorporates the rocky outcrops, using some natural ravines as internal environments. The entrance, facing south-east, is distinguished by the presence of a menhir reused as a lintel. The nuraghe is surrounded by a small defensive wall and some artificial terraces that delimit the upper part of the hilly elevation.

The village extends along the hillside, from the base of the elevation to the nuraghe, and is mainly made up of circular huts that often adapt to and incorporate large natural rocky boulders. At the base of the hill there are some domus de janas type tombs, dug into the local granite boulders and part of a much larger necropolis. Nearby there are other domus de janas, menhirs, engraved boulders and a Tomb of Giants in good condition.

Guided tour duration: 90 min

Info and reservations: 

coopsemata@gmail.com

mobile: 3298703515