Posada – June 8, 2023
Jun 26th, 2023 by rallyadmin
After a fine breakfast on the lovely patio at the B&B, it’s a beautiful day and we’re off to find a necroplis which is defined generally as an ancient cemetery. The word comes from the Greek meaning,literally, “city of the dead”.
The first is Necropolis of Anghelu Ruju . It’s located near Alghero off a well traveled 2 lane road. From the Wikipedia entry for the site, “The necropolis of Anghelu Ruju is a pre-Nuragic archaeological site located north of the city of Alghero, Province of Sassari, Sardinia. It is the largest necropolis of pre-Nuragic Sardinia.” It was discovered accidentally in 1903 and excavated numerous times since.
All of the tombs are actually caves that are now below ground though it isn’t certain that this was the case at the time the tombs were in use as a necropolis. The tombs are all considered to be of the domus de janas type which are tombs carved out of rock consisting of several interconnected chambers. It is a truly amazing site and the amount of work necessary to create the tombs is remarkable.
Then off to Necroplois Sant’Andrea Priu which is up in the highlands some fair distance from Alghero. Through the rolling wheat fields and small villages and towns. Meanwhile, what started as a beautiful blue sky day has become overcast with an occasional rain drop threatening a shower which never does come.
When we get to the entrance of the necropolis site, we can see the entrance to the cliff that is the site of the necropolis but there is a sign indicating that the ticket office is another km up the road. And up a steep hill. Park. Get the tickets and head back to the first entrance.
We park the car and as we start walking in, a woman calls us from up on the cliff. She’s the guide who is motioning us up the sloping walkways to give us a brief explanation of the site. She is outside of the largest group of chambers and explains the history of the site and these chambers. From the Wiki on this site, “Among the domus, three of them, the Tomb of the Chief, the Circular Hut tomb and the Chamber tomb, are of particular importance for their spectacularity and their high degree of conservation.” Click here for an in depth article with pictures and videos of the site.
This is considered to be one of the largest and certainly one of the most complex necropoli in Sardinia. The largest complex of rooms or chambers was eventually used by Christians as a holy site and you can still see the remains of frescoes from the Christian era.
At the top of the cliff there is a free standing stone structure that is either a sculpture or a tomb called the Bull. Whatever it is, it appears to be carved out of a single boulder or rock out cropping. The amount of work done over the years here just boggles the imagination. And, again, the location majestically looks out over the plain below. A remarkable site.
Out next stop is Olbia and the Giant’s Tomb, the Su Mont’e s’Abe. It is on a site that comprises a very imposing castello,Castello di Pedres, with a tower the dominates the skyline. (7_123_20210415112347.jpg)
More driving on the great two-lane roads in this area. We find the site of the castello (you can’t miss the tower) but not the site of the slab tomb. Signs a not a strong point at some of these sites. We drive down a very narrow side road and turn onto a still smaller road and finally find the tomb and the internet article makes it look a lot more impressive than it does in person.
What is notable though is this isn’t a tomb carved out of the rock. Rather, it is constructed of stone slabs that are quite large. These slabs aren’t Stonehenge size but they are quite large and the effort that it took to construct the site was substantial.
Back in the car for the drive to Posada. Posada has an old town that is perched on the top of a severe hill back on the coast. With the obligatory tower stone tower at the top, it’s an imposing sight but that’s isn’t where we are staying for the night.
As we approach the town, traffic is stopped just as we approach a fairly long bridge that leads to Posada itself. The is a very large flock of sheep crossing the bridge with some hardworking sheep dogs shoving the laggards along. I’m sure that the dogs moved the flock much faster that the shepherd could without them. I’m not sure that the shepherd did anything but walk along and watch the dogs run the show.
The bridge finally cleared of sheep, the traffic starts to move again. Just before the bridge, Google Maps takes us off the main road onto a very narrow “paved” road and turns us away from the imposing old city. A number of left/right turns and we start traveling uphill. And up. And up. And narrower. (I hope no one is coming down at speed.)
We see a group of microwave and cell towers at the top of the ridge that overlooks the coast on one side and the valley that we drove through coming into Posada on the opposite side. Just as we reach the top, the road takes one last right turn into a lot with a tractor, a backhoe and some other farming equipment.
There is a moment of doubt that we are in the wrong place but one more right hand turn and we arrive in the parking lot for Agritourism Irghitula, a guest house/hotel. In case you don’t know what agritourism is, from the US Department of Agriculture, “Agritourism is a form of commercial enterprise that links agricultural production and/or processing with tourism to attract visitors onto a farm, ranch, or other agricultural business for the purposes of entertaining or educating the visitors while generating income for the farm, ranch, or business owner.“ Unfortunately, though this guest house sometimes serves dinner utilizing it own homegrown crops, tonight isn’t one of those nights.
The guest house, though, is quite nice and the owners are very friendly and accommodating. There are quite a number of rooms and there’s even a swimming pool. The rooms are a bit small but quite nice and clean.
The biggest selling point for the guest house, though, if the altitude and the view. It is quite a bit cooler than the road that we arrived in Posada on with a brisk breeze bowing up the hill. And the view, especially on a clear, blue sky day is to die for.
We check in and take a break for a couple of hours. Then it’s back down the hill, slowly to avoid any surprises from local drivers on the narrow descent. We did have one front bumper to front bumper incident already on the way up the hill (I noted a definite and unexplained lack of crosses on the side of the road marking the site of previous tourist disasters – I assume natural selection has already weeded out the locals) and into Posada proper to find someplace to eat.
We park in one of the few open parking spaces that are available. Have I mentioned that the usual parking spaces are approximately 10 cm larger than the average car? We walk down the street that faces the coast which is still a few hundred meters away and find a likely looking restaurant.
We walk in through the gate and into a small garden and then into the restaurant proper. The sun has gone down and the temperature has dropped. A good meal with a decent wine. While we are eating there’s a commotion out in the street which we can see through a small opening in the hedge separates the restaurant from the street.
A shepherd is driving his flock of sheep up the main drag. Rather, his dogs are driving the sheep up the main drag. The shepherd is just following along. While this is happening, the nonworking dogs that are being walked by their owners are barking up a storm which is totally ignored by the shepherd’s dogs. “Hey, we’re working here. We don’t have time for this dilettante bs. Nice poof do, though, sweetie. I get off at 10.” I’m just guessing here. But that could/should easily be what is going on in the working dog’s brain.
We finish dinner and get back to the car. It’s not quite dark yet and I really don’t want to negotiate the climb back up the hill in the dark. Luckily, there are no incidents on the road and we’re back to the guest house just as the lights on the coast are starting to come on. The wind is still brisk and temperature is just about right. Tomorrow back to Cagliari.
Obi-wan