They used to go there as kids, returning from the feast of the Saint of Tuili. For everyone in the village it was "Sa Funtana", the "holly hill". Stories and narratives, behind that mystery wrapped in mythology and a thousand-year-old land. A teeming promontory, from Barumini to Las Plassas, from Villanofranca to Escolca. Marmilla, land of golden ears, whole wheat, scents of times gone by. Here, for millennia, the earth's chorography has been sculpted by the sinuous wind, climbing between plateaus and long expanses of plowed fields.

The "ditch" of Sardus Pater

Giovanni Lilliu, the Sardus Pater, the giant of Nuragic archaeology, the lands of Oreste Sanna, gazed at them from the horizon. He told the Unione Sarda in 1983: «I happened to go up from the "ditch" of the town [...] to the hill of the nuraghe, airy and beaten by the mistral, and stop to look at it, in amazement and mystery». In his eyes, that artificial relief of "Bruncu Su Nuraxi" could only be a large buried nuraghe, perhaps a village, the oldest on the island. That well at the top, a destination for libations and youthful songs, was none other than the highest summit of the "Nuragic Palace of Barumini". Men as strong as miners, boys fascinated by the discovery that was revealed to their eyes day after day, oxen rescued from the festive traccas , all shrouded in that mystery that was becoming more and more magnificent.

The company

It was the 1950s, those that marked "an undertaking ", as the great master of Sardinian archeology defined it, thanking the " brothers of a great adventure ", the workers who with him brought to light the greatest of the monuments of the ancient civilization of the Sardinian people. History, indeed. Nuragic and modern, until yesterday. Immediately afterwards, however, nefarious and vile days, capable of trampling on the altar of the most sinister affairs the history of a people, its deepest roots, its identity carved over the millennia. It happens, when common sense and a sense of responsibility are mocked, when institutions transform into tireless hoppers, capable of "crushing" monuments of 3,500 years of history in favor of "mercenaries" landed in Sardinia to make money and wind.

The Attila of State

It could never and should have happened, as is happening, that the fate of the most important monument of the Nuragic Civilization, the Royal Palace of Barumini, should end up on the desk of one of the most powerful palaces, the one occupied by the President of the Council of Ministers. Absurd, but true. The protocol of the former Ministry of the Environment, nominated for the modern Attila Oscar, has recorded an indelible handover for a few hours: « Proceeding in progress at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers» . The object of the project is devastating, not only for Barumini and its surroundings, but for the entire island: « Construction and operation of a wind energy production plant called "Luminu" consisting of 17 wind turbines, each with equal nominal power at 6.6 megawatts, for a total power of 112.2 megawatts, to be built in the municipalities of Barumini, Escolca, Gergei, Las Plassas, Villanovafranca ". It is a clear sign that the limit of institutional decency has been exceeded. If an Italian Ministry of State, that of the Environment, through the armed arm of the Environmental Assessment Commission of the Pnnr, decides to give the green light to the most serious disfigurement ever perpetrated against the Nuragic Civilization, it means that even the last tiny one has fallen barrier to defend natural and constitutional values which should have made inviolable a unique symbol in the world such as the "Palace of Barumini", already a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A "Caterpillar Department", the one headed by Minister Pichetto Fratin, which acts undisturbed, ignoring the heavily contrary opinions of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage which, in no uncertain terms, had described the wind project as totally incompatible with the Marmilla nuragic. He wrote it in such an explicit way that even a fool would have understood it: « It seems clear that the proximity of the 17 wind turbines with a height of 200 m would lead to an irremediable negative impact on a landscape and on a cultural heritage of great importance for the entire Island, as the presence of the wind towers would suppress the landscape integrity and balance that still exists today among the cultural heritage spread across the countryside, the small historic settlements and the agricultural and natural territory of reference ". The rendering , the simulation of the impact, which we reproduce on this page, drawn up by the designers of the scar at the "Reggia", demonstrates, without appeal, the devastation of the territorial whole framed right from the top of "Su Nuraxi". And the Special Superintendence of the Pnrr explicitly writes it: « As results from the analysis of the intervisibilities and the relative distances of the elements of the plant from the archaeological sites and the architectural cultural heritage, the looming presence of the wind turbines would leave no way out for their permanence, still unchanged today , of the landscape usability of the historical settlement systems and their significant relationships with the reference landscape, in consideration of a hilly and plateau territory characterized by numerous panoramic points from which broad views can be enjoyed ".

Flights of fancy

The "flights of fancy over nothing" reported in the rejoinder of the proposing company which tries in every way to defend the indefensible were of no avail: « ...specific territorial reconnaissance activities carried out through targeted inspections have highlighted frequent micro-local conditions (vegetation and slight variations in the level of the ground) which actually impede vision, differently from what is indicated by analyzes based on theoretical intervisibility ". In practice, in order not to see the wind turbines, according to the acrobatic design ruminations of the lords of the wind, one would have to hide behind shrubs and bushes. If, however, we analyze the maps that they themselves drew up, we realize that from the nuraghe of Barumini, those 70-storey skyscrapers, you can see all seventeen of them, with impunity.

Now Meloni decides

Nothing to be done, not even the "drawings", explicit for anyone, made the Commission give up, despite the contrary opinion of the Ministry of Culture: "a favorable opinion is expressed". The report, however, must necessarily take note of the opinion of the "Archaeological Department". A step that imposes the decisive verdict on the Presidency of the Council of Ministers called to resolve the "conflict" of opinions. It will therefore have to be Giorgia Meloni herself who decides which side to take, whether that of speculation at any cost or that of landscape and archaeological protection. His predecessor, Mario Draghi, when he had to decide on the shovels around Saccargia, with the same contrary and favorable opinions, did not have the slightest doubt: always on the side of the speculators. Previous precedents weigh on Palazzo Chigi's decision, but not only that. Dozens of other wind farms are connected to the Barumini project, all presented in the same area. Rejecting the "Grv Wind Sardegna 6 Srl" project, as would be elementary and obvious, would mean acknowledging the fact that Sardinia is inviolable. The fate of the Nuragic Palace is now in the hands of Palazzo Chigi, despite the Sardus Pater. Giovanni Lilliu has always loved to repeat: «the Nuragic Civilization belongs to the Sardinian people, only the Sardinians must decide how to protect and enhance their history». In Rome they turn a deaf ear to the wind and state incentives.

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