The Albucciu is located on the western edge of the Arzachena plain, between the San Pantaleo mountains in SE, the mountains of Luogosanto in O and the Limbara Massif in SO.
The structure, discreetly preserved, is of a mixed type, since it combines elements of the nuraghe with the corridor and the nuraghe with tholos. It is divided into two floors, of which only the lower one remains.
The building is leaning to the west on an outcrop of granite rock partially incorporated into the structure, a fact that has affected its development in plan. The walls are made of rough granite blocks arranged in irregular rows.
It has a sub-rectangular plan (23.50 m x 15.50 m) with a major N/S axis. On the front, in E, it has eight shelves protruding on the edge of the masonry, but originally more numerous, which crowned the building in support of a wooden balustrade.
In the center of the forehead, the entrance opens - arched and raised above the countryside level - which leads into a short trapezoidal passage covered by flat plates arranged at an increasing height towards the bottom.
The walls of the hall have two niches behind the entrance designed to house a trunk for fixing the door; this was stopped on the floor by means of a recess parallel to the threshold. A duct, built between the ceiling slabs and in the masonry up to the terrace, allowed the door to be lifted through a rope.
At the bottom of the hall, the entrances to two rooms open: on the right a bedroom and on the left a corridor. Here, the ceiling of the annite gives way to a low ogue to start climbing again at the entrance of the staircase located on the same axis as the entrance to the nuraghe.
The room, elliptical and with a protruding roof interrupted by a slab, presents - faced at the entrance - a niche set on the rocky outcrop that leads through a low corridor outside the nuraghe.
The narrow corridor, flat and paved, develops with a curvilinear pattern, perhaps conditioned by the rock wall on which it is placed.
The back staircase, with two ramps interspersed with a landing, leads to the terrace. The first ramp is covered by slabs with an upward scalar arrangement, while the second was probably open-air.
A second bedroom with access door - accessible from the terrace by a wooden staircase located in a small courtyard - represents the largest room in the entire building. The room, subcircular with walls set on the outcrop and projecting, has a small closet and an arched opening perhaps for lighting. A central seat is built according to the hearth.
The walls of the room originally had to rise considerably above the level of the terrace, delimiting a room probably divided into two floors by a wooden mezzanine connected by a wooden staircase.
The terrace extends over the entire building and has a wide strip paved by a cobblestone to which the rooms open; in the center, a subcircular area delimited by a row of stones is spared.
To the west stands a tower whose room acts as a corridor for two stairs with an opposite direction: the first descending towards the center of the building, the second steep and rising to a small, partially collapsed room.
To the north of the terrace, a rectangular body encloses an elliptical bedroom, originally covered, whose entrance opens onto a circular environment communicating with the terrace.
The materials found, including fragments of “ox-hide” ingots, panels and votive swords, document the use of the nuraghe from the end of the Middle Bronze Age, around 1400 BC to the early Iron Age, up to 650 BC. In the area surrounding the nuraghe, traces of the village were found, of which only a hut is currently visible.

History of excavations
It was excavated by Maria Luisa Ferrarese Ceruti in the years 1960-61, 1964 and 1967.

Bibliography
Elenco Edifici Monumentali, Roma, 1922, p. 162;
E. Contu, "Nuraghe Albucciu (Arzachena). Notiziario - Sardegna", in Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche, XV, 1960, p. 238;
M.L. Ferrarese Ceruti "Nota preliminare alla I e II campagna di scavo del Nuraghe Albucciu (Arzachena-Sassari)", in Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche, XVII, 1962, pp. 161-204;
M.L. Ferrarese Ceruti, "Il complesso nuragico di Albucciu", in A. Antona Ruiu-M.L. Ferrarese Ceruti, Il Nuraghe Albucciu e i monumenti di Arzachena, collana "Sardegna Archeologica. Guide e Itinerari", Sassari, Carlo Delfino, 1992, pp. 37-56;
F. Lo Schiavo, "Bronzi di età nuragica dalla Gallura", in Archeologia del territorio. Territorio dell'archeologia, Sassari, Carlo Delfino, 1996, pp. 65-96.

How to get there
The Nuraghe Albucciu is located in Malchittu, just outside Arzachena. It can be reached by taking the state road 125 Arzachena-Olbia (SS 125). In the same area there are also the tomb of the Moru Giants (about 200 meters) and the temple of Malchittu (1.5 km).