The Well of the Sanctuary of Santa Cristina is a sacred Nuragic area which stands tall on a basalt plateau, in the territory of the nearby Paulilatino (OR). The name comes from the ancient rural 11th-century church next to it, of which part of the apse and, around it, 36 muristenes, little houses used to accommodate the pilgrims during religious celebrations, still remain.
The archaeological site is surrounded by greenery dotted with centuries-old olive trees, and is divided into two nucleuses. In the first, there is a "well temple", dating back to the end of the Bronze Age, embraced by a sacred enclosure that is shaped like a 'lock'. Inside, there is a vestibule, a descending staircase and rooms with a Tholos vault, built with concentric rings; outside the enclosure, the meeting hut, which is round and has a 10m diameter, is paved with cobblestones and has a circular seat, and about 10 rooms, possibly lodgings for the High Priests and market workshops that accompanied the religious festivities. Middle Eastern bronzes dating back to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, bronze fibulas (9th century BC) and gold Phoenician jewellery, recovered in the excavations, bear witness to the long period of cultural and commercial vigour. The second nucleus is 200m away and consists of a single-towered Nuraghe, 6m high and 13m wide, with a staircase, a passageway niche, a room and a vault still intact. Around it, there are 3 long-shaped huts and the Nuragic village enclosed by a fence.
The sanctuary may have been a place for astronomical observation: it deserves a visit, when the full moon lights up the well water.
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