Lights on the Elephant Rock: Castelsardo's symbol illuminated
Councillor Speziga: «For years it has been wrapped in total darkness: let's give visibility to one of nature's beauties»
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Lights on the Elephant Rock, the large trachytic boulder that has become one of the symbols of the city of Castelsardo, illuminated after years of darkness. From Saturday 4 January it will be dressed in new light.
"For years wrapped in total darkness, with the new lighting we want to restore the vision of one of the beauties of nature", commented the councilor for Archaeological Heritage Christian Speziga. " For this reason we wanted to focus on a predominantly localized and non-invasive lighting. Thanks to this intervention the Elephant Rock will fully restore its charm to all those who frequent the area after sunset - he adds -. Never before has turning on the light meant starting a real restart".
The hypogeum, which is located outside the carriageway of the state road 134 towards Sedini, is included among the 32 protohistoric, Nuragic sites present in Sardinia that are proposed for UNESCO candidacy. The Elephant Rock is located precisely in the Multeddu area, at km 4.3 of the SS 134 that connects Castelsardo to Sedini, an enormous boulder of trachyte and andesite. In a very distant past, the boulder was part of the rocky complex of Mount Castellazzu, from which one day it broke away rolling down the valley and positioned itself exactly where it is today, where for years it was modeled until it assumed the shape of an animal. Inside, it houses two Domus de Janas, excavated on different levels, probably between 3200-2800 BC which tell with tangible traces, the life of the Sardinians in the prehistoric Neolithic era. This hypogeum today comprises four small rooms, originally preceded by a short dromos (corridor) partly covered and partly open to the sky. The domus is enriched with bas-relief decorations on some internal walls, depicting the horns of a bull, a representation of the divinity of the Bull God. The elephant rock was called Sa Pedra Pertunta, its original name in the Sardinian language, which can be found to literally translate as “the perforated stone”.
"The monument area will be affected by works by Anas in the coming months, with the rectification of the road section in front of the archaeological area, interventions by the municipality of Castelsardo and the Metropolitan Network of the North - West aimed at conservation and enhancement", explains Speziga. "I want to thank Piero Satta, owner of the company Energia Clima, which created the lighting system of the archaeological monument".
