Out of this world: the well sanctuary of Santa Cristina

Spring is the most beautiful season to visit one of Sardinia's strangest and most mysterious places: the well sanctuary of Santa Cristina. Now the surrounding olive groves are blooming and green, and with a little luck you will be alone there and can take in this magical environment undisturbed. No, this is not a UFO landing site, and it wasn't aliens who built this triangular hole in the rugged Sardinian landscape.

Where does the Santa Cristina well sanctuary come from?

The reality, however, is no less astonishing: around 3,000 years ago, members of the Bronze Age Nuragic culture carved precise blocks from the basalt rock in the surrounding area and built this sanctuary in a masterpiece of engineering.

Cults centred around springs or wells are undoubtedly among the oldest religious practices known to humankind and are widespread in many cultures. In Sardinia alone, around 40 Bronze Age well sanctuaries are known to exist today. However, the most impressive and best preserved is the sanctuary of Santa Cristina. Its modern name indicates that later cultures also used this place as a place of worship for their respective religions. Punic incense burners were found during excavations. In the early Middle Ages, hermit monks of the Camaldolese order settled here; the pilgrimage church of Santa Cristina, which gave the place its current name, also dates from this period.

What is the significance of the well sanctuary?

We can only speculate about the original significance of the well sanctuary of Santa Cristina; it is believed that it was a place of worship dedicated to ‘Mother Earth’. Steps lead down to the holy of holies, the womb of the earth goddess, so to speak. Above the water basin is a pseudo-dome (consisting of concentric stone rings), similar to those found in nuraghi.

Every 18 years and 6 months, the light of the moon shines through the hole in the centre of the dome. Twice a year, at the spring and autumn equinoxes, the rays of the sun shine on the water via the access staircase.

The builders of the sanctuary were not only exceptionally skilled stonemasons and civil engineers, but also familiar with the laws of astronomy, which undoubtedly played a prominent role in the religion of the Nuraghe people. So even if it wasn't aliens who built this structure, the sanctuary of Santa Cristina still has a connection to the universe. And anyone who has ever visited this special place will confirm that it is supernaturally beautiful!

With a Sardinian ‘Adiosu’, I bid you farewell for today.

Yours, Joachim Waßmann

Images: Carlo Perlagalli, Pozzo sacro di Santa Cristina, l’ingresso via Wikimedia Commons; The entrance to the well sanctuary, Cmussel, via Wikimedia Commons; Santa Cristina Pozzo Sacro Sezione mediana, Aga Khan (IT) via Wikimedia Commons; Pozzo di Santa Cristina, la Sorgente, Carlo Pelagalli via Wikimedia Commons, Pozzo sacro di Santa Cristina, dal fondo del pozzo, Carlo Pelagalli " via Wikimedia Commons