Sant’Antioco is an island in Southern Sardinia, but also one of the oldest cities in Italy, a record that not everyone knows.
Thus, a visit to the town of Sant’Antioco is a journey through the most important eras in the history of Sardinia, because this municipality, overlooking a placid stretch of sea, has been the destination of many populations coming from the motherland or from the Far East.
Nuragic testimonies, important Phoenician and Punic remains, imposing Roman remains, places of pirate battles, underground houses, catacombs: all this marks the beautiful town centre. In a few hundred meters of walk, you go through 4 thousand years of history.
Calasetta is the other inhabited center on the island of Sant’Antioco, which also has its own history, but more recently linked to the Ligurian people of Tabarchini, the first settlers of the opposite island, the island of San Pietro.
Here you can breathe a sweet vacant atmosphere and enjoy breathtaking landscapes, visible with an easy walk from the port to the Tower Sabauda. There are beautiful views along the square streets overlooked by the very white houses of the small seaside village. Don’t miss a visit to the famous Mangiabarche Lighthouse, in a landscape context of great impact.
The day’s guided tour of Sant’Antioco and Calasetta takes place on foot along easy routes and by car, with short journeys.
In the morning we will visit the town of Sant’Antioco, we will stop for lunch and in the afternoon we will venture to the village of Calasetta, to conclude the tour at the iconic Mangiabarche lighthouse.
Overview
From the Meeting Point (possible pick up from the hotel to be agreed) we will arrive by car in Sant’Antioco in front of the Ferruccio Barreca Archaeological Museum, where we can visit the museum and the tophet (the Phoenician cemetery dedicated to infants). Then we will walk towards the historic center of the city of Sant’Antioco to admire the Phoenician-Punic archaeological area, open-air excavations visible from the road. Based on your wishes and timing, we will visit together the Punic necropolis and the suggestive underground village, i.e. the ancient Punic tombs dug into the rock and transformed into rock dwellings until the 1970s.
Also worth visiting is the Basilica of Sant’Antioco and possibly the Christian catacombs present in its subsoil, again the result of the re-adaptation of ancient Punic tombs.
As an alternative to the archaeological museum we could visit, if possible, the “living museum” of Byssus by Chiara Vigo, master of the ancient art of weaving sea gold, or the fluff of the Pinna Nobilis, an enormous marine bivalve.
After lunch, in the afternoon, we will take the car back and arrive in the port of Calasetta. Here, with a short walk, we will visit the area of the Tower Sabauda (now home to a small archaeological museum) from which we will admire the coast in front, and then arrive at the town hall square where the suggestive church of San Maurizio stands out and other buildings in the typical style Genoese which marks the center of the village.
We will return to the car to resume our tour towards the ancient Tonnara di Sant’Antioco and the famous Mangiabarche Lighthouse, built on a rock and continuously subjected to the fury of the sea, a place of high aesthetic and natural impact.
The tour of the two main centers of the island ends here.
Highlights:
- Ferruccio Barreca Archaeological Museum
- Tophet area
- Punic necropolis (graves carved on the rock)
- Roman acropolis (temple, walls)
- Nineteenth-century fort “Su Pisu”
- Hypogeic village (rock houses)
- Basilica of Sant'Antioco
- Byssus Museum
- Port of Calasetta
- Calasetta Tower
- Tonnara
- Mangiabarche lighthouse
