Nuraghe Palmavera

The nuraghe Palmavera is an archaeological site located in the territory of Alghero, Sardinia. It is classified as a complex nuraghe, that consists of several towers joined together. The nuraghe and the surrounding village were built in various phase during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.

The main tower dates back to the first phase (15th-14th century BC) and retains the central chamber covered with the tholos and built with stones in limestone. The tower is archaic, with the entrance free of side passages and with the niches just sketched in the walls of the main chamber. There must have been also some huts outside the nuraghe.

In the second phase (first half of the ninth century BC) was added a second tower and restored the previous tower with blocks of sandstone. The two towers communicated through an interior courtyard and a corridor with niches.

It was also built the meeting hut, equipped with a stone seat that runs along the perimeter, interrupted by a tank made of stone slabs, of unknown function, and a round stone seat for the chief, standing next to a niche in the wall. At the center of the hut, on a circular altar, it is present a model of a nuragic tower in sandstone. In this period were also built other huts in the village of higher dimension.

In the third phase (9th-8th century BC), the nuraghe was restored again with blocks of limestone and around it was built an exterior wall with four towers-huts, forming two outer courts, divided by a wall with no openings. In one of these courts it was inserted the meeting hut, in the other has been identified a silo.

The village was destroyed by fire, probably at the end of the eighth century BC and was later sporadically attended in Punic and Roman times, as witnessed by some pottery found.

Text adapted from “Nuraghe Palmavera” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Nuraghe Palmavera ranks #3,134 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #251 of the 487 mapped in Italy. Founded c. 1400 BC, it is older than 99% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 3 atlas entries founded in the 14th century BC. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,793 times in the last 60 days, more than 64% of the atlas. Wikidata records about 28,000 visitors in 2022. See how Italy compares in the castle statistics.

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