This blog is about my Boyd-Niles Travel Fellowship research in Paulilatino, Sardinia which is a small municipality in the western highlands.
I awake to birds chirping and sunlight streaming through my windows. I am going to the archaeological site of Santa Cristina, home to a thirteenth-century novenry village for Saint Cristina, alongside a Nuragic-era (1800 B.C.-238 B.C.) well where the saint was supposedly martyred. A novena is a Christian nine-day prayer ritual based upon the apostle’s devotion in the upper room between the Feast of the Ascension and Pentecost. The site of Santa Cristina exemplifies much of what we have discussed throughout this OCS: pagan practices were not entirely subdued by the Christianity’s rise but, instead, were incorporated and interpreted into a Christian framework. Thus this allowed a Bronze Age site, like this Nuragic well, to maintain a spiritual identity through Christian worship.
As I begin my walk, all I see are rolling hills in all directions. Ten minutes in, I see a horse! Later, a herd of sheep lounges in the grass. As I come to the archaeological site, I am met with a wonderful bookstore and ticket shop, alongside a cafe and bathrooms.
I begin with the Christian village. Single-story stone houses make a horseshoe around a small church built around 1200. The church’s structure has undergone numerous renovations since its establishment, with only the outside lateral and back walls containing the original stones and cemented tiles. The small structures, called muristenes, have housed pilgrims since the thirteenth-century. Some have referred to the muristenes as ghost towns; spaces that are predominantly empty and host pilgrims at only a few points a year in a highly ritualized experience. This novenary is, therefore, a distinctly Christian space that can be characterized by the mobility of laypeople and religious figures.
The Nuragic well was such a joy to experience. Dating back to 1000 BC, this Bronze Age site is surrounded by a stone wall intended to separate the sacred from the mundane. The well itself lies 24 steps down into the earth in a circular chamber with a dome. The well is linked to the Nuragic water cults whose ritual sites are scattered across Sardinia in the form of sacred wells or springs. As you descend into the well, the air temperature drops and the humidity increases. Many people walked barefoot in order that they might dip their feet into the well’s water. I was surprised by the number of pilgrims at the well, many were humming while sitting on the lower steps, creating an eerie effect. For me, this was a great example of how Christian practices employed such an ancient site for their own worship.
Feeling successful, I begin my walk back to my hotel. In sum, this experience was unforgettable for a number of reasons. Firstly, I had never solo travelled like this before. The Boyd-Niles provides the resources to help people like me begin to experience travel for research purposes. Secondly, the site itself emphasized both visually, and in the actualized practice of the pilgrims present there, the vastly nuanced relationship between Christian and pagan ritual practice. Lastly, this trip brought me into contact with such a variety of people I would never have otherwise met: a Belgium couple at the hotel, the lovely lady who made all my dinners for me, and a French couple who took my picture for me! All in all, this was a trip that I will never forget.