The Nuraghe, symbolic monument

The typical and distinctive architectural element of the Nuragic civilization is the nuraghe. It is a tower structure with an internal chamber (or chambers, in the case of multi-storey monuments) covered with a “false dome” or “tholos” vault.

The same word 'nuraghe' with which the monument is called probably derives from the linguistic root 'nur', of very ancient origin and probably of Mediterranean substratum, which should mean precisely 'cavity' but also, at the same time, 'pile of stones' and, in a translated sense, 'place of elevated observation'. This is how, already in the linguistic synthesis, the dual architectural nature of the monument to which the term “nuraghe” refers, designed to house living spaces and at the same time a purely military structure, to control the territory, would be expressed.

In everyday speech, this term is also used in Sardinia to designate other types of monuments that, in technical language, are classified as' pseudonuraghi 'or' protonuraghi 'or 'corridor nuraghi'. This last name is particularly eloquent in expressing the typical character of these monuments: the “corridor-like” shape of the inner rooms, without the tholos roof.

At the current state of our knowledge, the nuraghe (meaning by this term a monument structured as we have just described it) is an architectural manifestation peculiar to Sardinia alone. However, there is no lack of opportunity to compare their structural and architectural solutions with the tholos constructions of the Aegean world, of Corsica, of the Balearic Islands, more or less contemporary.
In these ways, the nuraghe is therefore a typical expression of megalithic architecture that is manifested, in this chronological phase, in various forms throughout the Mediterranean basin.

Update

12/9/2023 - 16:36