Su Gologone is a considerably important site on the island. The site’s arrangement is reminiscent of a spa, with an entrance fee, gardens and a nearby hotel. Also for those familiar with the UK, in a way one is reminded of Mother Shipton’s cave and petrifying well in the set up – but cheaper.

Paying one’s entrance fee and following the track around one reaches of the most incredible springheads on the island is that which arises in Oliena muncipal area. A platform is raised over it and one can see down to the rocks below. Like many sites on the island, it is well signposted as well, courtesy of a nearby hotel. The sheer captivating beauty of this spring is hard to ignore, yet it does appear to have made any major cultural or rather religious impact. Which in an island such as Sardinia quite bizarre.

The spring arises from a deep rift in the rock being a Karst spring, being the most important in Italy providing around 300 litres a second of clear, ice-cold and beautiful mineral waters erupting from a great chasm in the rock, the water turning into a stream which joins the Cedrino River below.  A Karst spring is one which arises from the permeable limestone, dolomite or gypsum and often erupts from a cave system. This spring is one of the most dramatic and beautiful. The water of the spring is certainly valued and when I was there a large number of individuals travelled some distance it appears to take the water.

Has the spring been ever culted?

As far as I am aware no prehistoric cult artefacts have been found at the spring head however only a few yards is a small church dedicated to Nostra Signora della Pietà, a lady well perhaps? The presence of a church may be significant, particularly one which is so inconvenient in its construction set upon a rocky crag and with a very uneven floor…my bottle of water rolled some considerable difference. The church is very simple, consisting of one chamber focused on the altar of course. How much significance we can read into this little chapel so close to a great spring is unclear but as there is no evidence of a settlement in the proximity perhaps a bit. I hope this brief piece will find someone who knows!? There is so little known of its significance.