The complex covers about 7 hectares in a dense cork forest, on the Bitti plateau, a granite relief in the northern Nuoro area. It is close to the source of the Tirso river.
Romanzesu is one of the most important housing and cultural complexes in Nuragic Sardinia, with a hundred huts, five religious buildings, a well temple and four “megaron” temples - and a large ceremonial enclosure. It is built with local granite.
The area develops around the temple well, built in the rock from whose crevices spring water flows. It has an access staircase and a circular chamber (diameter 3.40 m; height 3.60 m) built with regular rows of carefully worked blocks. The floor is paved and a bank-seat runs along the perimeter of the wall. The well was associated with three betylini discovered at N and S of the structure. A sort of stepped corridor, marked by some menhirs, connects the well with a large circular stepped basin (diameter 14 m), with a paved floor, perhaps intended for ritual ablutions, where the flood water of the spring was collected. The well area has returned recent and final Bronze materials (XIII-IX century BC).
The four “Megaron” temples and the enclosure are located in the village area, on the slight slope next to the well.
The first “Megaron” (length 12.15 m; width 5.40/6.20 m; remaining height 2.15 m) is about 100 m from the well and faces E. In its first phase, from the 14th century BC, it had a doubly “in antis” pattern (long sides extended on the front and back) with a vestibule that led through a trumped entrance into the internal rectangular compartment (length 5.30 m; width 3.30 m). This was equipped with seats and counters for offerings, while a central pit seems to document the presence of a ritual architectural element. In the 13th-11th century BC, the vestibule was closed with rectilinear walls and equipped with spaces for containers for ritual use; in the 10th-9th century BC, it was expanded with the construction of a curvilinear front.
Near the temple is a large elliptical enclosure (diameter 18.40/16.70 m) with an E-shaped entrance and an internal structure of concentric walls. These create an annular path, almost labyrinthine, connecting with a central paved room (diameter 4.74 m): in the center, a base built with wedge blocks had to support a cultural element, perhaps the same clay model of Nuraghe returned in fragments from the excavation. The discovery of a thousand quartz pebbles seems to confirm the ritual function of the environment.
The second 'megaron' rises upstream of the well. It is rectangular (length 11.90/11.20 m; width 6-5.50 m) and is built with blocks arranged in irregular rows leveled with wedges. The rectangular inner compartment (length 5.15/4.90 m; width 1.65 m) preserves the paved flooring and part of a large bar. Outside, on the right side, there are two bases for the offerings with the remains of the lead flows.
The third 'megaron' is located 100 m N of the first. It incorporates some rock protrusions and has a rectangular shape doubly “in antis” (length 8.80 m; width 2.30 m). The walls of the inner compartment are made of regular rows of freshly sketched blocks. The temple was surrounded by a paved fence whose base is preserved.
Among the village huts, circular, some particularly spacious are equipped with seat counters, niches and internal subdivisions, similar to the meeting huts of other Nuragic villages on the island. The ceramics returned from the huts attest to a primitive layout of the town in the advanced phases of the Middle Bronze (16th century BC).
Other buildings with a rectangular plan, with an apsidal bottom side and spiraliform or circular counters, were perhaps functional to welcome pilgrims.

History of excavations
The first excavations were carried out by Antonio Taramelli in 1919. Starting in the 80s of the twentieth century, systematic investigations by Maria Ausilia Fadda resumed.

Bibliography
A. Taramelli, “Sheet 207, Nuoro”, in Archaeological Edition of the Charter of Italy, Florence, Military Geographic Institute, 1931, p. 12, n. 23; Ch. Zervos, La civilisation de la Sardaigne, du début de l'énéolithique à la fin de la période nouragique: 2. millenaire, 5. siecle avant notre ere, Paris, Cahiers d'art, 1954, p. 285;
G. Lilliu, The Civilization of the Sardinians from the Paleolithic Age to the Nuraghi Age, Turin, New ERI, 1988, p. 534; M.A. Fadda, “On Romanzesu: The Village and the Sorcerer”, in Living Archaeology, 69, 69, -June 1998, pp. 62-67;
M.A. Fadda, “New acquisitions of megalitism in the territory of the province of Nuoro”, in Aspects of Prehistoric Megalitism, Dolianova, Grafica del Parteolla, 2001, pp. 48-66;
M.A. Fadda, “New Acquisitions of the Cultural Architecture of Nuragic Sardinia”, in Etruria and Central-Northern Sardinia between the Late Bronze Age and Archaism. Proceedings of the XXI Conference on Etruscan and Italic Studies (Sassari, Alghero, Oristano, Torralba, 13-17 October 1998), Pisa-Rome, 2002, pp. 311-332.

How to get
From Nuoro, take the SS 389 in the direction of the industrial area of Prato Sardo. Cross the SS 131 dir and continue to Bitti without crossing any town. Cross the town, continue on the SS 389 in the direction of Buddusò and, at km 54.2, turn to d. on a paved road. Continue for 1.9 km then turn to D. and follow the tourist signs to the car park in front of the entrance to the archaeological area and the nearby ticketoffice.