With regard to the Nuraghe San Sebastiano, located in the Gesico settlement, the MIbact website states that
the nuragic complex consists of nine towers, three of which refer to the central structures and six to the robust antemurary walls. Its absolute peculiarity is the direct insistence on its structures of the ruins of a small country church, dedicated to the saint of the same name and dating back to the early 17th century, to whose phase of use eleven burials found in the area surrounding the sacred building refer. On the modest hill of San Sebastiano, significant evidence of Punic occupation is also legible.
The reasons for this overlap, of which there are several similar examples in Sardinia, could be different. Assuming that the nuraghi performed sacred functions, one could speak of religious syncretism and thus of a certain continuity between paganism and Christianity; otherwise of the desire to destroy, hide or ‘subdue’ the symbol of a previous pagan religion.
One could also hypothesise, much more simply, the convenient choice of using a pre-existing and particularly solid foundation on which to erect the new church.
The photos of the San Sebastiano nuraghe are by Maurizio Cossu and Andrea Mura-Nuragando Sardegna.
