Francesca sees us from the dawning of civilization to these days, passing from the Tophet and the hypogeal village to the Savoy fortress.

Francesca says: “Sant' Antioco is intrinsically bound to the underground and to the archeological wonders which characterized its development starting from the ancient Phoenician Sulci.
Tophet, catacombs and hypogeal village bring us back in time to the first inhabitants of these places.
The hypogeal village has another peculiarity: the caves housed some families up to a few decades ago (if I’m not wrong until the second postwar).
Some caves show hints of everyday life of the people who lived here: with pride the owners want to keep the memory of a past of extreme poverty.
If you visit Sant' Antioco you have to stop here."

Some notes:

The Tophet:
It is a Hebrew Bible term to indicate a place.
Inhabited from 7th to 1st century BC it is an open-air area set against a trachyte rock called “Sa Guardia de is Pingiadas" (the guard of the pots) since here more than 3000 cinerary urns were unearthed.
It was supposed that the urns could contain the bones of sacrificed children, but today the medical tests demonstrate that the children died of natural causes.

The hypogeal village:
Close to the Tophet there was a Phoenician necropolis formed by burial chambers dug between 6th and 3rd century BC.
In the Middle Age some people converted the necropolis in houses so escaping the raids of the Saracens.
These houses were inhabited until about 1930 by the poor.
The municipality recently restored the “grotte” quarter and the hypogeal village that are now open to public.

The Savoy fortress:
Intended as a defense from the Ottoman Empire, it was built between 1813 and 1815 on the hill which hosted the Punic counterworks also using part of the pre-existent nuraghe (photo 35: a reconstruction of the Punic settlement).
In 1815 it was expunged by the Bey of Tunis in spite of the heroic defence of the Sardinian soldiers and volunteers captained by Efisio Melis Alagna.
The fortress entered the archeological tour of Sant' Antioco after the restoration of the mid-'90s.

For more info:
wikipedia: Sant' Antioco island
the tophet
savoy fortress

Thank to our friend Francesca for the beautiful photographs