Domus de Janas

Sa Omu ‘e Janas


Sa Omu ‘e Janas is the Sardinian name fort a certain kind of underground structures. The Italian translation Domus de Janas (House of the Fairies) is commonly used though. They are artificial, dug into the rock with barrel vaults and thin pillars, which were also sculpted from the rock. The age of those structured is pre-Nuragic, they were dug by the people of the San Ciriaco through Ozieri cultures, between 3400 and 2700 BC. In other words they are late Neolithic, Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age origin. The original use is thought to be graves, at Anghelu Ruju near Alghero there is a necropolis with 38 tombs. The caverns have a certain, almost church-like general floor plan, which is quite typical. The walls are sometimes decorated with chiseled symbols, most common are a sort of horns or probably a lying moon. Hundreds of votive statues were found in the cave, so the general consens is that they have worshipped Mother Nature.

The island has numerous such underground structure, more than 3500 were so far identified by the archaeologists, about a dozen are open for tourists. Since 2025, these tombs have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, not just some of them, but all of them!

2025 inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

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