In chronological order it is the last " Damnatio memoriae " of the Italian State to the land of the Nuraghi. The last "condemnation of memory", inflicted on the ancient civilization of the Sardinian people, the Nuragic one. The ruling two days ago by the Sardinia Regional Administrative Court, the Regional Administrative Court, on the devastating "agrivoltaic" project 350 meters from the "Barumini nuragic system" is much more than an alarm. In those twenty pages of ruling the administrative judges not only outline the devastating scenario of laws and projects that are heavily surrounding the island, but they even put in black and white the late intervention of the state bodies in placing protection restrictions on archaeological assets , starting from the Nuraghi.
Black holes & killer norms
An "obligatory" ruling from the Sardinia Regional Administrative Court in the face of the many "black holes" in the procedures for the protection of the Nuraghi around Barumini and, above all, in the face of those "killer" regulations contained in the infamous "Draghi Decree", the provision which as of 2021 it razed every defense to the ground. The Administrative Judges write this explicitly: « However, none of the requests can be accepted, as the regulatory provisions applicable in the case in question are clear and binding for the Board (that of the Magistrates) to the contrary ». It is, therefore, the national regulations that have reduced both distances and archaeological protections to a "minimum". Barumini's case is emblematic. It is the clear and eloquent representation of passages that constitute the general proof of what can happen throughout the island. First of all, the Draghi Government's "apparently" transitional rule on "suitable areas". It is true that the Regions would have had 180 days to define their "suitable areas", but it is equally true that those six months should have started from the moment in which the Government had adopted its implementing decree on the definition of "suitable areas" . An act which, after almost 3 years, has never been passed. Mario "Bulldozer" Draghi, however, in legislative decree no. 199 of 2021, convinced as he was that that implementing regulation would not arrive quickly, had established that the minimum distance to be kept between a Nuraghe and an expanse of agrivoltaic panels should be just 500 meters. A real license to devastate an asset which, for the history of Sardinia, is not "just" a Nuraghe, but a real "Nuragic ensemble", made up of unitary landscapes, visual connections, altimetry and strategic positioning. A “Together”, indeed. A "Unicum", claimed in a feeble but vibrant voice, the " Sardus Pater " Giovanni Lilliu, the "father" of the Nuragic Civilization. A passage of the sentence, the one which recalls the limits of 500 metres, which disarms magistrates and renders defenseless a municipality, like that of Barumini, also aiming to defend its history and its most ancient assets at all costs. The vulnerability of distance is one of the pivots of the devastating action of the Palaces of Rome which have effectively imposed distances from the archaeological assets, to define the "suitable areas", all aimed at encouraging energy speculation, trampling in any way the other "values ” constitutional principles of the landscape, archaeological and cultural heritage.
“Troglodytes” of distances
The example of the ruling on Barumini-Tuili is emblematic: for the State, in that delicate and sensitive area, the importance of an archaeological asset is measured with distances imposed by "troglodytes" of history, capable of evaluating the value universal of a historical heritage only with meters and decameters. One merit must be recognized in the sentence: it opens the eyes of those who still wanted to keep them closed, it puts those who think of entrusting Sardinia to the next Government decree on "suitable areas" with their backs to the wall. The decision of the Sardinian Regional Council to wait for the definition of the Rome decree on "suitable areas" has only one comparison: that of "American turkeys" which invoke Thanksgiving to be greedily consumed on the tables of the States . A question imposes itself on the political chessboard: if that decree contains, as it is expected to contain, a distance of 500 meters for photovoltaic systems and three kilometers for wind turbines from archaeological assets, will the Sardinian region give the agreement?
Civilization in pieces
It is all too clear that, since the Nuragic civilization settled in the rural landscape of Sardinia, it will be literally torn to pieces, despite its 3,500/4,000 years of history. It won't happen to the Colosseum in Rome which, although half the age of the Royal Palace of Barumini, is located within a residential area, not included in the Government's wind or photovoltaic speculation. The Judges' decision puts everyone face to face with their responsibilities: no one will be able to say that they were unaware of the effects of the "suitable areas" imposed by Rome and possibly accepted "supinely" by the Sardinian Region. Added to this is another disturbing aspect reported in the sentence: « the rule obliges the judge to consider the supervening archaeological constraint placed on the Nuraghe Turriga irrelevant, as the related declaration procedure began on 4 May 2023 and then concluded with the provision of 5 October 2023, whereas the contested favorable EIA provision is of 27 March 2023 ". A crucial step to understand the danger looming over the island. The first question is, in fact, about distances: in practice the Nuragic "Palace" of Barumini is more than 500 meters away from that planned industrial expanse of panels, albeit on the visual axis. However, 230 meters from that silicon "esplanade" designed in that area, therefore within the 500 meter range, there is the Nuraghe Turriga, in the Tuili territory. This distance would have been sufficient to declare those areas "unsuitable". It is here, however, that we discover yet another "slap" from the State: that Nuraghe had never been subjected to a declaration of archaeological interest, effectively forcing the TAR not to be able to cancel the acts of the Ministry of the Environment which had "with impunity ” approved that expanse of 24 hectares of panels in front of the nuragic site declared a World Heritage Site. In practice, say the Judges, the Environmental Impact Assessment was approved on 27 March 2023, while the provision for the protection of Nuraghe Turriga, a stone's throw from Barumini, only arrived after the game was over, on 5 October 2023, with almost eight months late. A fact of unprecedented gravity, especially given the devastating consequences that could be unleashed in that area, opening the doors to a real tsunami of authorization. A theme, that of the "declaration of archaeological interest", which reiterates the absolute urgency of subjecting the entire Nuragic Civilization of Sardinia to maximum protection. How many other Nuraghi on the island, for example, like that of Turriga, are without the "declaration of Archaeological Interest"? It is all too clear that the network of seven thousand Nuraghi surveyed, and another 2,000/3,000 hypothesized, could in itself constitute a first impressive protection action, decisive in combating panels and wind turbines.
Just want it
Now, therefore, two major issues loom over the island: on the one hand the devastating effects of "suitable" and "unsuitable areas", on the other the urgency of blocking this havoc with effective, urgent and binding "urban planning regulations". The difference between the two approaches is substantial: with "suitable" and "unsuitable" areas the devastation will continue, albeit with quicker times for the former and ordinary times for the latter, while with "urban planning regulations" it would end immediately to every devastation. Sardinia, moreover, has primary competence in urban planning matters. Thanks to article 3 letter «f» of the Statute, a constitutional rule, the Region could "govern" the territory without State interference, putting multinationals, lobbies and various fixers out the door, once and for all. Just want it.
