Menhirs, mysteries pointing to the Sardinian sky

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Menhirs, mysteries pointing to the Sardinian sky

They are dotted across sacred areas of Antiquity, making the island landscape even more special

bridges between earthly and divine dimensions

Aniconic or anthropomorphic, worked ‘with a light hammer’, decorated with mysterious symbols: the menhirs of Sardinia represent one of the most fascinating puzzles in island archaeology. The monoliths embedded in the ground - perdas fittas in Sardinian – appeared in the Recent Neolithic age and during the Eneolithic period, that is around the third millennium BC. They may have represented deified characters and, in fact, they are often found in sacred or funeral areas. Among the patterns carved into their surfaces, there are ‘human’ features (noses, eyebrows, breasts) and symbols, like the ‘overturned’ and daggers. The first appears to be the depiction of the soul of the deceased that has ‘migrated’ into a dimension opposite to that of the living. The latter could refer to hero figures celebrated as gods. The journey to discover them starts in Gerrei and leads to the centre of the Island, crossing Trexenta and Sarcidano and ending in the woods of Mandrolisai.

Journey length: 94 km
Road travel time: 2 hours

Pranu Muttedu, Goni

In a forest of centuries-old oak trees, three kilometres from the town, lies the archaeological park of Pranu Muttedu, approximately 200 thousand square metres in size and divided into two parts. To the north, there is the village; to the south, the funerary areas, accompanied by one of the highest concentrations of menhirs on the island: around 60, distributed in pairs, alignments or groups and also inside the tombs. Not far away, there are also Domus de Janas and Nuraghe Goni, after which it’s time to head north-west, towards Laconi.

Pranu Muttedu Park

One of the most impressive, important and inimitable pre-Nuragic sites on the island, it is located in the green countryside of Gerrei in the...

Menhir Museum, Laconi

It’s impossible to learn more about the prehistoric statue-menhirs without visiting the museum dedicated to them. In the beautiful Aymerich Palace, in the centre of a village with a thousand archaeological, natural and ‘spiritual’ attractions, a collection of 40 monoliths is on display, providing evidence of the evolution of pre-Nuragic sculpture in the Sarcidano area. By making a detour of about 22 kilometres to the west, you can see a colossal one, which is six metres high: that of Monte Corru Tundu, in Villa Sant'Antonio.

Menhir museum - Museum of prehistoric statuary in Sardinia

In a stately building in the village of Laconi, in the Sarcidano region at the heart of Sardinia, there is the largest display of prehistoric...

Corte Noa, Laconi

After the museum, we return to observe the menhirs in situ. Corte Noa is just one of the many areas in the Laconi territory to have revealed perdas fittas. We can see seven of them here: six aligned and one that has slipped further down. They are protoanthropomorphic, meaning with barely outlined human features. A very short distance away, you can also see a gallery dolmen, the ‘ancestor’ of the Giants’ Tombs. Other menhirs can be found in the localities of Is Cirquittus, Masone Perdu and Piscina ‘e Sali.

Menhir and dolmen of Corte Noa

The mysterious spirituality of the Neolithic peoples shows itself on a hill in the Sarcidano region, in the centre of Sardinia: it is one of the...

Biru ‘e Concas, Sorgono

The itinerary ends at one of the most fascinating pre-Nuragic sanctuaries in Sardinia, as well as the site with the highest concentration of menhirs in the Mediterranean. In Biru ‘e Concas, eight kilometres from Sorgono, among cork oaks and holm oaks you’ll find a nuraghe, megalithic walls and above all 200 menhirs positioned in two alignments, thirty of which are ‘arranged’ in double rows, while around 170 are lying on the ground. The sensation they arouse is quite chilling.

Biru 'e Concas

Set in the western folds of Gennargentu is the highest concentration of menhir in all of the Mediterranean area, dating to some five thousand years...