Sardara, Casa del Balilla

The area includes a single-tower nuraghe made of regular rows of limestone blocks, located in the center of Armungia, a town located in the mountainous Gerrei, at the mouth of a wild and rocky valley, in a position overlooking the Flumendosa.
The building was designed by the architect Salvatore Rattu, dating back to 1937, and stands out with its clear, square tower, which is accompanied by a side body on two floors, longer than the main façade. This has a two-arched porch and is underlined by openings, now partially closed. It is therefore a construction that has simple and essential lines, as well as effective and functional, according to the principles of the architecture of Rationalism.
On the back, a large space is visible, once reserved for the gymnastic exercises of young fascists.
After the Second World War, it later became a middle school, archive and municipal warehouse, to be left in a state of deplorable semi-abandonment today.

History of studies
A review of the studies can be found in the bibliography relating to the fact sheet in the volume of the “History of Art in Sardinia” on nineteenth-century architecture (2001).

Bibliography
“Casa del Balilla in Sardara”, in Italian Architecture, 1938, 4, p. 136;
F. Masala, Architecture from the Unification of Italy to the End of the 20th Century. Nuoro, Ilisso, 2001, sheet 74.