Bonarcado

Bonarcado is an agricultural and pastoral hamlet that owes its importance to the presence of the religious complex consisting of the Romanesque church of S. Maria, built by 1147 by the monks of the adjoining Camaldolese monastery in dark basalt and red trachyte, and the adjacent ancient sanctuary of the Madonna di Bonacatu. The sanctuary, dating back to the 8th-9th century, is a small Greek cross-shaped building, also made of basalt and trachyte, with a façade finely decorated with lobed arches; inside, it preserves a basin with a mosaic floor dating back to Roman times and a 16th-century bas-relief in polychrome terracotta of the "Madonna and Child". A short distance from Bonarcado is the Nuraghe Lugherras ("of the Lucerne"): imposing, it consists of a keep with two superimposed chambers and is surrounded by centuries-old holm oak woods and grassy glades.