PauliLatino, Nuraghe Lugherras

The nuraghe is located on the edge of a plateau 300 m above sea level immersed in a thick vegetation of bagolari and oak trees.
The building is a three-lobed building (keep A and secondary towers B-C-D) to which another tower (F) was added, perhaps due to a collapse of the structures. Around the complex, an antewall was erected with four corner towers connected by almost straight curtains.
The keep (A) has a circular plan of 13.50 m in outer diameter. The wall work consists of medium and large basalt blocks that have just been drafted, arranged in horizontal rows. Intact in the lower chamber, the monument preserves only the window on the upper floor.
The entrance to the tower (1.80 m high), facing SE, is surmounted by an lintel equipped with an exhaust window. The corridor leading to the room has an ogival section and gradually grows in height towards the entrance to the room; in the wall d. of the corridor, the entrance niche opens (m 2.50 x 1.50 in height); on the s., facing the niche, the stairwell opens, with an ogival roof, of which some erect and worn steps are preserved (tread m 0.25); the staircase led to the upper floor that has now collapsed (m 3.60 in diameter).
The circular “tholos” chamber (diameter m 4.80 x 9.00 in height), has two semicircular facing niches (m 1.20 x 0.90); that of the room extends into a narrow compartment.
The upstairs room, now collapsed but originally equipped with niches, was illuminated by a window that overlooked the courtyard. From the floor of this window, in addition to accessing the interior of the room, one went down into a nich-closet.
To the three-lobed bastion, connected by concave wall curtains, another tower was then added - in SE - to SE, thus introducing the “paneled” pattern. The entrance was moved from SE to NE. From this entrance, which has a beautiful lintel with an exhaust window, you can access - through a narrow passage carved on the d. - to the chamber of the tower added F and to the courtyard. Tower F, with an elliptical chamber (m 4.95 x 3.20), standing tall, has - on the wall s. - the access to the staircase that led to the curtain terrace.
The courtyard (E), in the shape of a crescent (m 8.75 x 2.70), has - at the entrance to tower C - a well depth of 10.25 m with a mouth of m 0.45 obliterated, in part, by a stretch of wall that covers the front of the keep, coeval with tower C. Of the three towers of the first bastion, only the soaring chamber of tower C can be detected, which communicates with the courtyard through a corridor 8 m long and with tower D through a passage parallel to the NE curtain. The masonry of the bastion consists of quadrangular basalt blocks arranged in horizontal rows.
In a third construction phase, the pentagonal antewall (F, G, H, I, L) was erected, with an irregular quadrangular, partially visible plan, made of multifaceted work with large, roughly sketched basaltic blocks. The towers have external diameters ranging from 12 to 7.5 meters.

History of excavations
The central core of the building was excavated by Antonio Taramelli from 1906.

Bibliography
A. Taramelli, “The Nuraghe Lugherras near PauliLatino”, in Ancient Monuments of the Royal Academy of the Lincei, XX, 1910, coll. 153-234;
G. Lilliu, The Nuraghi, prehistoric towers of Sardinia, Cagliari, La Zattera, 1962; E. Contu, “Nuragic Architecture”, in Ichnussa. Sardinia from its origins to the classical age, Milan, Scheiwiller, 1981;
F. Lo Schiavo, “Economy and society in the age of the Nuraghi”, in Ichnussa. Sardinia from its origins to the classical age, Milan, Scheiwiller, 1981;
M. Sequi, Nuraghi. Manual to learn about 90 great megalithic towers in Sardinia, Robbiate, Multigraf, 1985;
G. Zirottu, Paulilatina: memory and history, Paulilatina, Municipality of PauliLatino, 2003.

How to get there
From the SS 131, take the SP Paulilatino-Bonarcado at km 119; after about 3.8 km, turn right into an agrarian road and continue for about 2 km.