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Nuraghe Arrubiu

The largest and most complex nuraghe in Sardinia, with a five-lobed bastion and twenty-one towers, near Orroli.

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About the museum

Nuraghe Arrubiu, the “red nuraghe” in Sardinian, owes its name to the reddish colour of its basalt blocks, due to traces of iron or, according to others, to the lichens that grow on the walls. The complex dates to about 1500 BC and is considered the largest and most complex nuraghe in Sardinia and one of the major protohistoric monuments of Western Europe.

It is one of the few nuraghi built to a unified design: a central tower, the keep (mastio), rising 25–30 metres, is surrounded by five towers joined in a five-lobed bastion, by an outer wall (antemurale) with seven further towers, and by two outer curtain walls with more towers, for a total of twenty-one towers over an area of more than 5,000 square metres. Excavations have revealed a complex system for draining and channelling water, wide courtyards and, from the Roman period, two wine-making workshops with superimposed basins for pressing grapes.

The collapse of the nuraghe is dated to the 9th century BC for reasons not yet clear; the site remained uninhabited until about 100 BC, when the Romans arrived and converted some parts into a kind of rustic villa. The museum “Sa Domu de su Nuraxi” in the centre of Orroli holds the finds but is temporarily closed for works.