“I am pleased that the UNESCO National Commission has accepted the proposal of the Ministry of Culture and has decided to present the domus de janas for inclusion in the World Heritage List. The 26 sites preserve a historical-cultural testimony of exceptional universal value which well illustrates the richness of the Sardinian heritage".
This was declared by the Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano at the end of the Board of Directors of the Italian National Commission for UNESCO, which today decided on the official presentation of the candidacy of the site “Art and architecture in the Prehistory of Sardinia. Le domus de janas” for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The candidacy, promoted by the Association Centro Studi Identità e Memoria – Sardinia and supported by the Sardinia Region, by the network of Domus de janas Municipalities and by the 37 Municipalities involved in the project, was coordinated by the UNESCO Service of the General Secretariat with the assistance of the Competent territorial offices of the Ministry of Culture.
The serial site, made up of 26 components, identifies a particularly important era for the history of the island in the center of the Mediterranean, between the XNUMXth and XNUMXrd millennium BC. The identified components refer to the most representative monuments of this historical period, which ranging from the Middle Neolithic to the Copper Age, and referable to the two great phenomena of hypogeism and megalithism. Both, widespread in contemporary European civilisations, take on peculiar aspects and connotations in Sardinia, which testify to exchanges with the outside world, but at the same time to original local re-elaborations.
Through elements linked to civil, funerary, cultural and religious functions, underlined in many cases by important and elaborate artistic manifestations, it is possible to reconstruct the daily life of the communities that inhabited Sardinia at that time.
Particularly known are the so-called domus de janas, the "fairy houses", often richly decorated funerary structures, which over the centuries have become a common and identifying part of the island's imagination.
The nomination will be submitted to the World Heritage Committee's advisory bodies for consideration and then, in 2025, to the 1972 Convention Committee for evaluation.
Subscribe to our newsletter!