Pula

Nora is located in the western part of the gulf of Cagliari in the city of Pula. It is a city of ancient foundation, already frequented by the Phoenicians (7th-6th century BC), who chose this particular place as a stable settlement thanks to its morphological conformation. It is in fact a peninsula that juts out towards the sea with two promontories, Punta ‘e Su Coloru (the point of the snake) and Punta del Coltellazzo, linked to the mainland by a narrow isthmus.

In the Punic age (end of the 6th – 3rd century BC) Nora experienced a phase of great development, which also continued with the passage under the political sphere of Rome (from 238 BC). Indeed, like other Roman cities with a maritime vocation, Nora strengthened its port structures concentrated on the north-western side of the peninsula during the Roman period. The stele, discovered in 1773, is certainly of great importance. It is a block of sandstone bearing an inscription which appears to have been written in Phoenician alphabet.

The status of “municipium” (second half of the 1st century BC) led to the construction of the forum in the eastern area of the city, in an area already occupied by Punic era warehouses, demolished and buried for this purpose.

In the Julio-Claudian age Nora and the other Sardinian cities experienced a phase of great building development with the construction of monumental buildings (theatres, amphitheatres, thermal plants, roads, aqueducts). The theater of Nora, built taking advantage of the natural conformation of the land near the forum, dates back to this period.