It was the first Phoenician city in Sardinia (8th century BC), an important commercial crosswords and port of enviable location, in the Isthmus of Capo Pula. Nora, which developed fully in the 4th century BC under Punic rule, was conquered by the Romans in 238 BC and became a municipium in the 1st century AC.
During the two following centuries, it lived its maximum splendour: it reached 8,000 inhabitants and became caput viae of all of the roads on the islands. The remains of this flourishing city can be seen at the Archaeological Park of Pula and the findings are exhibited at Patroni Museum.
Almost all evidence of Phoenician-Punic times were covered by Roman edifications. Excavations began in 1889, when a coastal storm revealed a Phoenician-Punic cemetery (tophet), bringing to light the remains of the Temple of Tanit, a Carthaginian goddess, and the Nora Stone, in the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari. On the stele, the most ancient document of the Western world, the name Shrdn, Sardinia, appears for the first time.
At the entrance to the park, there are the remains of the thermal baths. The cobbled streets lead to Piazza del Foro. Nearby there is a temple with a six-column entrance hall (pronao), while to the north you there are the necropolis and the aqueduct. On the coast there is a nobleman’s house from the 3rd century AC, with a four-column portico and rooms lined with mosaics such as ‘Nereid on a marine centaur’. Keep walking and you will see the amphitheatre: originally lined with marble, it had twenty terraces and could seat one thousand people. To the south there is the Aesculapius’s Sanctuary, with a mosaic-lined terraced from the 4th century.
Fondazione Sardegna Film Commission
Via Malta 63 — 09124 Cagliari
Phone: +39 070 2041961
Email: filmcommission@regione.sardegna.it
