Fonte Sacra Su Tempiesu

Built 13th century BCE, used until 4th century BCE. Only Nuragic well-temple preserving elevated structures (6.85m). Opus isodomum construction with lead clamps. Votive offerings. Discovered 1953. UNESCO tentative list.

In the 13th century BCE, Nuragic builders chose a spring in what is now the Orune countryside and constructed a sacred well-temple unlike any other that would survive. They transported trachyte and basalt from distant sources, worked the stone with the Opus isodomum technique, and connected the ashlars with lead clamps. The temple rose 6.85 meters—vestibule, staircase, cell containing the sacred water. For nine centuries, until a landslide caused abandonment in the Early Iron Age, worshippers deposited votive offerings in the healing spring: rings, bracelets, bronze figurines of warriors and commanders. That same landslide preserved what it ended; when rediscovered in 1953, Su Tempiesu revealed what no other Nuragic site could show: the complete architecture of a sacred well.