The limestone cliff of Scala Piccada conceals an isolated and evocative domus de janas in the hinterland of Alghero.
The entrance to the cavity opens among the trunks of holm oaks and the dense shrubs of the Mediterranean maquis, introducing visitors to an underground environment sculpted with remarkable geometric rigor.
Inside, the volumes are distributed around a central room onto which smaller cells open, arranged according to an orderly floor plan. The polished surfaces of the walls reveal the meticulous care with which Neolithic communities sought to translate the dignity and symmetry of dwellings reserved for the living into the subterranean world.
The excavation trenches carried out at the site have yielded pottery fragments and stone tools that confirm the prolonged use of the sepulcher throughout prehistory. Scala Piccada outlines the profile of a densely populated ancient landscape, where every rock outcrop transformed into a sacred place for entrusting the deceased to the earth.
