Su Nuraxi di Barumini

I visited Su Nuraxi in September of 2023 on a self-driven tour around Sardinia. Due to the structure of my itinerary, Su Nuraxi was the fifth Nuragic site that I stopped by, so I already was well familiar with the key information points regarding the ancient civilization and its archetypal edifice. Because of that, I did not mind going on an Italian-language tour, starting within minutes of my arrival, as opposed to waiting for the next English-language tour. That I speak and understand Italian - passably, not fluently - obviously helped, but the relative familiarity with the subject helped even more.

The guide-led timed entry at Su Nuraxi - every half hour; the only nuraghe visited on this trip where we could not roam free - is partially justified by the fact that the interior parts of Su Nuraxi that you can step into are dark and small to the point of being claustrophobic; there are three narrow passages where traffic has to be limited to one person at a time in one direction. In fact, for all of its overall size and supposed exemplifying features, I did not find Su Nuraxi to be the most impressive of the nuraghi that I've seen specifically on the strength of its interior space constraints. 

When you linger on elevated viewpoints of the central complex, you start to recognize that what looked from the ground like piles of stones are actually visible outlines of outer structures. Once the guide leads you …

I finally gave up on public transport in Corsica & Sardinia at Barumini: there's no way to do it on a day trip by bus or train. Not that the experience of renting a car for a day was such a pleasure: I found the Hertz office at Cagliari-Elmas airport understaffed at 9 am, their printer did not work so they had to write my contract by hand (oh, I so wish for a full digital transformation of car rental companies) and the directions where to pick up my car were immensely vague. I guess the lady behind the desk had lost her sense of direction because of the stress. Together with a German tourist, I went on a thorough search for our cars, which we finally spotted after 20 minutes using a high vantage point. It turned out that there is an additional parking lot just in the shadow of the large parking garage.

All these delays meant that I could throw overboard the plans that I had to visit another site or two beside Su Nuraxi di Barumini. If you have your own wheels and a full day to spare from Cagliari, you could easily extend a trip to Barumini to the Sulcis Iglesiente TWHS and the Temple of Antas.

Fortunately, the visitor experience at Su Nuraxi di Barumini is exemplary. There’s free parking and a (book) shop. The 14 EUR entrance fee is steep, but in addition to entry to two museums in town it …

September 2009 - with my best schoolmates we decided to do an one week trip to Sardegna. After 2 days in Cagliari we rented a car and planned to drive around the Island. I had to pesuade them to go first up north to visit Sardegnas only whs. A pile of stones when looking from outside. But we did a tour going into the beehives, which was quite impressive. However, after the visit we drove back to the shore. An amazing place I can advise: Piscinas dunes on the westcoast. A memorable experience and the best we have seen on the island.

I visited this WHS in March 2017. Having visited most of the 'beehive' sites on the list and knowing that the cost of this visit would be quite steep at 11 euros per person, I had low expectations.

Upon arriving at the Su Nuraxi parking lot, just outside the village of Barumini, I immediately spotted the highest nuragic structure and what seemed like circular structures which are quite similar to the ones of Choirokoitia in Cyprus. So to actually 'see' the site you can stroll by the street and view the nuragic site with the 15th century castle remains of Las Plassas in the background.

However, you'd be missing out on the very interesting guided walk through the nuragic complex and most importantly inside the nuragic 'fortress' which offers an unbeatable panoramic view of the whole site from the highest tower. Moreover, included in the entrance fee to this site are visits to Palazzo Zapata, which houses a limestone (whitish) nuraghe and several important remains found in Su Nuraxi and Centro Giovanni Lilliu which has an interesting collection of excavation photos and 3D models. The most important remain in Palazzo Zapata is the limestone model of a nuragic tower which was found in 'hut' 80 as it gives an idea of how the upper part of the towers must have looked like. It also helps to appreciate the signifance of the numbered basalt stones scattered around the site's perimeter which most probably belong to the uper parts of the towers.

…

The Su Naraghi near Barumini have the distiction of forming one of the largest and most complete of these strange villages. The dwellings are conical in shape and constructed of dry stone boulders carefully wedged together.

The WHS is stuated 20 minutes walk from the village of Barumini. Although there are infrequent direct buses to and from Cagliari, I travelled to Barumini by train from Cagliari Republicca station to Isili on the Ferrovia de Sardegna railway. Then I caught a bus from Isili to Barumini.

The site is very impressive and large. I was surprised one could go in, but this was only possible with a guide. There was no English speaking guide available, which made it hard to understand what we saw. With a little English book it was possible to understand some of it.

It was not difficult to find the site. I found it very worthwile visiting and would certainly recommend this to anyone visiting Sardinia. However the countryside was a bit disappointing...