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An ancient civilization built this elaborate hole in the ground as a sacred site.
The Well of Santa Cristina isn't really a well in the traditional sense, and it has nothing to do with Santa Cristina, other than its proximity to a country church dedicated to her in the 1200s. You have to cut the person who came up with the name some slack, though, because what the structure actually is — or was — isn't easily summed up in a pithy moniker. The well is part of a shrine complex built in the 12th or 11th century BCE by the Nuragic civilization, and is one of the most important remaining Nuragic sites. The Nuragic civilization lived in Sardinia from the 18th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, and though they were remarkably skilled masons whose impressive stone structures still stand, they did not leave behind any written record. So while it is contextually clear that the area around the Well of Santa Cristina was a sacred site complete with a meeting hut and lodgings, beliefs associated with the site and the rituals that would have taken place there remain unclear.
