An original prehistoric monument set in the typical landscape of Monte Acuto and Gallura in north-eastern Sardinia, amid granite, woods and Mediterranean scrub.
It appears suddenly along the road connecting Buddusò, the centre of Monte Acuto, on the border with Gallura, to Bitti, a village in northern Barbagia. The Loelle nuraghe, hidden among cork and holm oaks, gradually shows its fascinating and mysterious features and, hoisted on an outcrop of granite, the local main rock, dominates the plateau and the houses of Buddusò.
Its structure, consisting of a central tower, to which a three-lobed bastion is attached, is considered to be of a ‘mixed’ type, having characteristics of both ‘corridor’ and tholos nuraghi. It is hypothesised, in fact, that it is a protonuraghe readapted in later phases to meet renewed architectural and cultural needs. All around, you will notice traces of the village of huts, circular in plan. Upon entering, you will be surprised to note that the entrance does not open onto a courtyard or a corridor leading to a central hall, as was customary in these Bronze Age buildings. Instead, in Loelle, a flight of stairs leads clockwise around the tower, leading directly to the second level. Here another corridor starts, which, if followed in its entirety, descends to the ‘ground floor’, while about halfway down a further flight of stairs ascends to the third level, where the main chamber finally opens up. Before the entrance to the chamber you will notice an apsidal niche on the right.
In front of the donjon was built a bastion crossed by corridors, with concave-convex curtains. On the outside of the rampart, on the east side, here is another particularity of the Loelle: taking advantage of a natural ravine, a free-standing room was created, vaulted in the form of a tholos, which opens up at a depth of about one metre above ground level. Moving about centre metres from the nuraghe and village, you will find a Giants’ tomb, of which the rows of the corridor and traces of the exedra are visible. Not far away, hidden by oaks and holm oaks, appears a second tomb, also with few surviving traces, and a small dolmen. The last mystery that the Loelle area holds is the probable existence of a sacred well: the news comes from various sources but no trace of it has been found so far. (Taken from Sardegna Turismo)
The photos of the Loelle nuraghe are by: Diversamente Sardi, Bibi Pinna and Francesca Cossu. Those of the giants’ tomb and the Loelle dolmen are by Andrea Mura-Nuragando Sardegna and Marco Cocco respectively.
