The Giara Park

The Giara Park, Giara di Gesturi or Sa Jara Manna, (500-600 m a.s.l.), falls on 4 municipalities: Genoni, Gesturi, Setzu and Tuili. It covers 44 square kilometers, about 15 of which belong to the municipality of Genoni. The name Giara (Sa Jara, Pranu ‘e Jara) seems to derive from the Latin glarea (gravel), referring to the widespread stoniness that characterizes its surface.

The Giara is a basaltic plateau with distinctive features, a huge natural fortress in the center of Sardinia that holds a wealth of endemic flora and a fairy-tale environment. It is best known for the presence of the Giara horses, spring blooms and the small lakes known as Paulis.

Steep crags of dark lava rock, from which roaring waterfalls sometimes tumble, surround this vast plateau, whose surprisingly flat top is embellished by the striking water pools of the paulis (Pauli Tramatzu, Pauli Maiori, etc.), with their splendid, whitish spring blooms of water buttercups. The steep slopes of the Giara, lush with verdant forests and Mediterranean scrub, are molded in the tender Miocene marine marly sediments, in places incised by steep seasonal water channels. On these slopes, frequent springs (funtanas or mitzas) often originate from the infiltration of rainwater along the network of diachlasis across the summit basaltic rock.

Among the specificities of the Giara Park we can list the many endemisms, rare plants and flowers typical of this unique environment. One above all the Morisia Monanthos, known “erba de oro,” or the more than 25 wild orchids that bloom on the great Giara.

Due to its remarkable landscape-naturalistic values, the Giara Plateau has been included among the nine natural parks under Regional Law No. 31 of 1989.

Living fossils of the Giara Park

Lepidurus apus lubbocki Brauer and Triops cancriformis Schaff are two small crostraceans of the ‘order Notostraca that, unchanged for more than 200 million years, live in the Paulis of Giara Park.

Lepidurus is a small crustacean with a maximum length of about one centimeter, equipped with a green carapace moves swiftly through the water. Among the special features of this living fossil one is definitely the third eye, called naupliare. Lepidurus differs from Triops cancriformis Schaff by a kind of third, supra-anal plate, absent in the genus Triops.

The extremely hardy eggs, are laid, by the female in the mud of water pools, typical of the Giara plateau. The eggs survive the cold and especially the heat of summer periods, when the paulis are completely dry. When conditions for life are suitable, the eggs hatch and the life cycle of these small animals resumes.

When and how to visit the Giara Park

The Giara is open and visitable every day of the year, from Genoni, you can reach the parking lot at the entrance after about 6 km (see map below). At the museums: PARC and Civic Museum of the Giara Horse, it is possible to pick up convenient maps for visiting on your own or you can contact a local guide for guided tours. Certainly a visit to the Cavallino Museum before the walk to the Giara Park provides the cultural and scientific tools for the excursion.

Typical constructions of Giara

The pinnetta (or pinnettu, pinnette, etc.) or barraca is the most typical pastoral artifact in north-central Sardinia, a place for activities such as cheese production and ripening, also used as a shed and lodging especially in winter by the shepherd of sheep or goats. It is usually part of a pastoral enclosure (cuile(s), sheepfold), with other artifacts such as the corte(s) or mandra(s), enclosure for the flock, lacus (drinking troughs) and other enclosures for milking, lambs or kids to be weaned, etc. It usually consists of a circular dry-stone foundation about two meters high, on which is fixed a conical covering of supporting poles and branches (antas and fustis) and branches, tied together by rushes or ropes or wire, which is renewed on average biennially and at least seasonally readjusted. The frasche are arranged with the foliage downward to help water flow downward and outward and smoke escape. At the top some stones or logs give added stability, as do the sides of the entrance. It may have no closure at the entrance or have one made of branches. The entrance may also be all masonry, also with bonding mortar, with an over lintel obtained with a stone also squared. The interior floor is made more serviceable by beating it with large stones. In the center is excavated the hearth (foxili, foghile) used mainly for processing milk for cheese, which seasons on planks hanging from the antas of the roof. A foghile (called barraca in that case more often) can also be all made of poles, branches and branches, ground-fixed, conical-circular in shape or with only two large slopes. Its derivation from at least Nuragic huts has been identified.

Formation and geological origin of the Great Giara

The formation of the Giara began in the Miocene, 20-25 million years ago, from sea-submerged Sardinia, the marls that underlie the Giara plateau were formed; this moment is described and can be visited at the Genoni Geosite, known as the Duidduru Quarry.

The actual formation of the Giara di Gesturi, dates back to the Pliocene, 5-2 million years ago, when Zeppara Manna and Zepparedda spread over this broad plain the burning lavas that would form the basaltic layer that currently characterizes the Giara Park.

In the video, a description of the formation of the Santu Antine Hill in Genoni and the Giara Plateau.