Nuraghe Palmavera

Palmavera preserves a Nuragic settlement within the Porto Conte landscape near Alghero. Limestone and sandstone towers rise among the circular foundations of a village, whose meeting hut provides a distinctive glimpse of communal life in Bronze Age Sardinia.

Why it matters

The complex developed from a single main tower into a larger enclosure with a second tower, courtyard, outer defences and surrounding huts. Its successive phases record changes in the settlement rather than one building campaign.

What to notice

The main tower retains a corbelled tholos chamber and niches. The second tower, connecting corridor and courtyard show how the core expanded. Stone benches ring the large meeting hut, where a miniature model of a nuraghe and a cylindrical stone seat were discovered. A copy of the model remains at the site; the original is preserved in Sassari’s Museo Sanna.

Context and history

The earliest tower is generally placed in the fifteenth to fourteenth centuries BC, with expansion during the ninth and eighth centuries BC. A fire ended the village’s main occupation, although later Punic and Roman presence is recorded. Antonio Taramelli excavated here in 1904, followed by campaigns associated with Ercole Contu and Alberto Moravetti. More recent work has identified foundations associated with another tower.