'Fairy houses' in Italy win UNESCO recognition

The Domus de Janas in Sardinia, southern Italy, have been recognized as a World Heritage Site. The announcement of what is the 61st Italian archaeological site on the UNESCO list was made this Saturday (12), maintaining the Belpaese as the country with the largest number of inclusions.

The decision was taken today by the World Heritage Committee, meeting in Paris, during its 47th session, which inscribed the "Funeral traditions in prehistoric Sardinia: the Domus de Janas" at UNESCO in recognition of its "outstanding universal value".

Known as "fairy houses," the application for these prehistoric tombs to be listed as World Heritage Sites was promoted by the CeSIM Sardegna Association and the network of municipalities of the domus de janas, based on the third criterion of the 1972 Convention, which refers to the unique and exceptional testimony of a lost cultural tradition, linked to the cult of the dead and beliefs in the afterlife, developed by the prehistoric communities of the Sardinian island between 5 and 3 thousand years before Christ.

Through their architectural variety, decorative complexity, and planimetric evolution, these underground tombs—like no other site in the Mediterranean—document the social organization, rituals, and spiritual conception of the oldest communities in Sardinia, demonstrating both cultural continuity and transformations up to the beginning of the Bronze Age.

"The success of the candidacy represents further confirmation of the International Organization's appreciation for the work carried out by the Italian government in the conservation and enhancement of the nation's cultural and natural heritage," said the Italian Ministry of Culture in a statement, which supported the candidacy of the domus de janas alongside the government of Sardinia and other local mediators.