Sardinia's newest UNESCO site, listed in 2025

The domus de janas of Sardinia were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in July 2025 as Italy's 61st site: 17 locations out of the 26 proposed, across 14 comuni, with Alghero leading the nomination.

17 of 26, and the 9 that did not make it

The serial property inscribed in July 2025 at the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee holds 17 sites, selected from the 26 that Italy put forward.

That gap is the interesting part. A serial nomination is negotiated down: the committee keeps the components that carry the argument and drops the rest, and the 9 that fell out are not lesser monuments, they are redundant ones for the purposes of the file.

Alghero was the lead comune of the bid, and the 17 sit in 14 comuni across the island.

What is actually in the ground

The domus de janas are rock-cut chamber tombs, and the inscribed group is described as the largest expression of hypogeic funerary architecture in the western Mediterranean.

The 17 include Anghelu Ruju at Alghero, Puttu Codinu at Villanova Monteleone, Monte Siseri at Putifigari, Mesu e Montes at Ossi, Su Crucifissu Mannu at Porto Torres, the Orto del Beneficio Parrocchiale at Sennori, the Roccia dell'Elefante at Castelsardo, the Parco dei Petroglifi at Cheremule, Sant'Andrea Priu and Sa Pala Larga at Bonorva, Sos Furrighesos at Anela, Ispiluncas at Sedilo, Mandras at Ardauli, Brodu at Oniferi, Istevene at Mamoiada, Pranu Mutteddu at Goni and Montessu at Villaperuccio.

That list is a driving route, not a day out. The components are scattered from the northwest coast to the south, and the two Bonorva sites are the only pair in the same comune.

The name and the date are both unsettled

2 official sources give the site 2 slightly different names and 2 different dates in July 2025.

One calls it Arte e architettura della Sardegna preistorica. Le domus de janas, the other Tradizioni funerarie nella Preistoria della Sardegna: le domus de janas. One dates the decision to July 12, the other to July 14.

Neither discrepancy affects what was listed. It does affect what you should trust when a page quotes a precise date, and it is the reason this page says July 2025 rather than picking a day.

Italy's last 3 inscriptions, in order

3 Italian properties have been added most recently: the Via Appia Regina Viarum in 2024, the domus de janas in 2025, and the system of Italian-style condominium theaters of central Italy in 2026.

Read as a sequence, they show what the committee has been rewarding: a road across 4 regions, a prehistoric burial network across 14 comuni, and a building type spread over Emilia-Romagna, the Marche and Umbria. All three are serial sites, none of them is a single famous building.

Su Nuraxi, listed in 1997, runs on a 30-minute clock

At Su Nuraxi di Barumini, on the list since 1997, you cannot walk in on your own: visits are guided, departures leave every 30 minutes, and the tour lasts about an hour.

The same ticket covers the Casa Zapata museum complex, which contains the Su Nuraxi 'e Cresia nuraghe, and the Centro Giovanni Lilliu, each with a guided visit of around 30 minutes. Tours run in Italian, English and French.

All 3 sites open every day of the year, and the archaeological area can close for bad weather or for prohibitive temperatures. That last clause is worth taking seriously in July and August on the Marmilla plateau.

Prices are the gap here. The foundation publishes seasonal fares and hours only as downloadable PDFs that we could not open, so no figure is printed on this page. Third-party sites quote a full and a reduced rate; those are not on the primary source and are not repeated here.

How the 2 Sardinian listings differ

Su Nuraxi has been inscribed since 1997 and is 1 site with a gate, a guide and a timetable; the domus de janas were inscribed in 2025 and are 17 sites in 14 comuni with no single entrance.

That difference decides how you use them. Barumini is a booked morning with a 30-minute departure clock. The domus de janas are a decision about which two or three you can reach in a day of driving, and about which ones have an on-site custodian at all.

Nothing about the 2025 inscription changed access, opening or price at any of the 17 locations. A listing is a status, not an infrastructure program, and the first year after an inscription usually looks exactly like the year before it.

For the rest of the island, see Sardegna.

↑ Contents