Grotta San Giovanni

Grotta di S. Giovanni di Domusnovas

Useful Information

Location:	Loc San Giovanni, 09015 Domusnovas SU. North of Domusnovas, on the road to the north. Cagliari, Sardegna. (39.3371883, 8.6277316)
Open:	All year daily 9:30-18:30. Guided Tours all year Sat, Sun 11, 14, 16. [2025]
Fee:	Visita autonoma: Adults EUR 8, Children (6-12) EUR 5, Seniors (65+) EUR 5. Visita interattiva: Adults EUR 10, Children (6-12) EUR 6, Seniors (65+) EUR 6. Visita Guidata: Adults EUR 12, Children (6-12) EUR 7.50, Seniors (65+) EUR 7.50. [2025]
Classification:	Karst Cave Caves Used as Road Tunnels
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:	L=1650 m, road tunnel: L=850 m, A=230 m asl.
Guided tours:	Visita interattiva: D=1 h, L=1,700 m. Visita Guidata: D=1.5 h, L=1,700 m.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	yes
Bibliography:	A. Naseddu, F. Casti, M. R. Cadoni, L. Pisani, A. Zarantonello, T. Santagata, C.-Y. Huang, H.-M. Hu, C.-C. Shen, R. Braucher & J. De Waele (2025): A Multidisciplinary Study to Understand the Speleogenesis and Evolution of San Giovanni Cave (Domusnovas, SW‐Sardinia) 19th International Congress of Speleology - Brazil 2025.
Address:	Grotta San Giovanni, Località " San Giovanni" s.n.c., 09015 Domusnovas SU, Tel: +39-348-0553-309. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1866	construction of road started by Count Pietro Beltrami.
1999	cave declared a natural monument, road closed.
2019	cave modernized.

Description

The Grotta di San Giovanni is a huge cavern with two entrances, but it is not a show cave, it is a road tunnel. As a matter of fact, this cave is so big and at the right place, so they built a normal road right through this through cave. The main passage is used as a tunnel in its full length of 850 m. The road was built at the end of the 19th century on behalf of Count Beltrami to access the mines of the Oridda valley to the north. The mines Sa Duchessa, Barrasciutta, Arenas and Perda Niedda were very productive but are closed now.

Until 1999 this wass one of extremely few caves you could visit while driving your own car, just following the road S.S.N. 130. But as one can not see very much from the car, you had to walk along the road. The traffic was obviously not very fortunate for the cave and the cave animals, the vehicles, especially the trucks, brought a lot of dust and exhaust. So the government of Sardegna closed the cave for the traffic and declared it a Natural Monument in 1999. Now there is no fear of being killed in a road accident any more, during the cave visit. The best start for the visit is the southern entrance, only 1.5 km from Domusnovas, where the parking lot of a long closed bar and pizzeria exists. At first the cave was open freely, the was no gate, just a road block for vehicles. The cave even had electric light during the day, but was freely accessible and there was no fee.

However, times have changed again, and now there are numerous restrictions. There are open hours and a rather high fee for entering the cave, which is obviously a result of a modernization project which was started in 2019. The whole cave was equipped with new electric light, multimedia systems and there is now wifi in the whole cave. They offer three different cave tours which are called Visita autonoma, which is a self-guided walk through the cave, Visita interattiva, where users are guided by an App and use the Wifi of the cave, and there are classical guided tours on weekends which are called Visita Guidata. If you want to simply cross the cave by bike or by foot, this is still possible, but you now have to pay a small fee and its allowed only during half an hour before the official opening of the cave. And it’s necessary to cross the cave in less than 15 minutes, we have no idea what happens if you need longer, probably you have to pay the full entrance fee. On the other side they now rent bikes and scooters. All in all it was a project to create jobs for the locals, but we are actually not aware how fully automated cave tours with an app and wifi will accomplish this.

The whole cave has very little speleothems, but there is an impressive formation of rimstone pools. Halfway down the main passage a side passage branches off to the west. The cave fauna in the side passage is very interesting, so it is now protected by an iron bar gate.

The Grotta di S. Giovanni was named after the Saint because it once contained a cave church or chapel. Some remains of human structures can be seen at both entrances, but there are no remains of this chapel. Today a small country church nearby is still dedicated to San Giovanni.

The cave is not only a through-cave, it is a river cave. The river bed runs parallel to the road and is dry most of the year. Only in winter, after heavy rains, water flows down the riverbed. There is even the rare possibility of floods, which make it impossible to enter the cave.

The cliffs around the cave entrances and on the nearby mountains Monte Acqua (540 m asl) and Punta San Michele (908 m asl) are very popular among climbers and free climbers. On weekends during summer there are many climbers.