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The “Toro” or “Campanile”

There is a trachyte rock on the top of the hill among the prehistoric artificial grottoes that make up the Sant’Andrea Priu necropolis. It almost dominates the valley below, that is called the “Campanile” (bell-tower) or “Toro” (bull) due to its particular shape (fig. 1).

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Fig. 1 - The so-called “Campanile” or “Toro” (photo Unicity S.p.A.).

Probably, it was originally a tomb with a single room, dug out of a large mass of rock jutting out from the crop, where the walls were later destroyed.

The internal cell is 1.50 metres x 1 metre and is 0.95 metres high.

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Fig. 2 - Map of the “Campanile” or “Toro” (by TARAMELLI 1919, p. 121, fig. 60).

It has often been interpreted as a sculpture of a bull, now headless. This hypothesis, while charming, has not been confirmed by any intentional breakage of the rock visible on the monument’s surface (figs. 3, 4).

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Fig. 3 - Detail of the “Campanile” or “Toro” (photo Unicity S.p.A).
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Fig. 4 - Reconstruction hypothesis (by MALATESTA 1954, fig. 145).



Bibliografia

  • CAPRARA R., La necropoli di S. Andrea Priu, Sardegna Archeologica. Guide e Itinerari, 3, Sassari 1986, pp. 27-29.
  • MALATESTA A., Il cosiddetto Campanile della necropoli nuragica di S. Andrea Priu (Bonorva), in Rivista di scienze preistoriche, Firenze 1954, nn. 1-2, pp. 105-113.
  • TARAMELLI A., Fortezze, Recinti, Fonti sacre e Necropoli preromane nell’Agro di Bonorva (Prov. Di Sassari), in Monumenti Antichi, Accademia dei Lincei, XXV, coll. 765-904, Roma 1919, p. 81, p. 121 fig. 60.

 

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