10 Things to do in Carbonia That You Shouldn't Miss

The Museum of Sulcitani Paleontological Environments “E. A. Martel” (PAS/Martel) is a naturalist museum dedicated to the Geology and Palaeontology of Sulcis-Iglesiente. It is housed in the former workshop of the Great Mine of Serbariu. Founded in 1972 by the Speleological Research Group E.A. Martel of Carbonia, it became the Civic Museum in 1996. The Museum focuses on bio-events, geo-events and ancient environments recorded in the rocks found in the south-west of Sardinia, especially its fossils.

The museum is the heart of the Museum System of the town of Carbonia and is the centre of an entire chain of cultural heritage: from excavations to cataloguing, from exhibitions to diffusion. Owned by the Municipality of Carbonia for research on the extraordinary Nuraghe Sirai and renovated in 2008 to give its current structure, it exhibits the finds of excavations carried out at numerous sites in the area: the shelter of Su Carroppu, the Domus de janas necropoli of Monte Crobu and Cannas di Sotto and Locci Santus, the main archaeological area of Monte Sirai – Nuraghe Sirai, which has become the largest Archaeological Park in the Sulcis region. The extremely informative arrangement of the rooms is the ideal background for the numerous educational workshops and services the Museum offers schools.

Monte Sirai is a first-class Archaeological Park overlooking an extraordinary landscape from its high plateau above: an archaeological area of at least 40 sites, starting from the Neolithic period to the end of the Punic era. Other sites stand within the plateau, some of which are of exceptional interest, such as the Nuraghe Sirai, partly connected with each other by the remaining stretches of the ancient Via Sulcitana. Its strategic position between land and sea overlooking a major road and access to the coalfields explains its foundation by the Phoenicians and its rebuilding by the Carthaginians, who gave Monte Sirai its most distinctive, historic layout. There is a splendid panoramic view to be enjoyed from the Monte Sirai plateau: overlooking the Gulf of Palmas, it reveals a fantastic landscape dominated by the islands of Sant’Antioco and San Pietro, surrounded by smaller islands (Toro, Vacca, Vitello and Isola Piana) and the dunes of Porto Pino.