Berchidda, Monte Acuto Castle

The fortress is located on the hill of the same name, belonging to the mountain system of Southern Limbara, in Sardinia N/E. Due to its position, the hill of Monte Acuto over the centuries has performed functions not only of defense, but also of sighting enemies and of controlling the plain below. In addition to the ruins of the medieval castle, among the bush it is possible to identify the remains of numerous older settlements, starting from the pre-Nuragic and Nuragic periods: a dolmen, a series of houses, some menhirs, two megalithic walls, one of which is 400 m away, the other 460 m away. There are also abundant testimonies of material culture, such as tiles, ceramics, pottery.
The first documentary information about the castle of Monte Acuto dates back to the 13th century, when it was the seat of the judge Adelasia of Torres, as well as of the archbishops, prelates and dignitaries of the kingdom. A spectator of the struggles between Iberians and islanders in the 15th century, following the Catalan-Aragonese conquest of Sardinia, the castle of Monte Acuto gradually lost its importance, beginning the slow decline that today gives it to us in the form of ruins.
Of the medieval structure, in the highest part of the hill, there are not many material testimonies left. On the way up, you come across a sort of guard outpost, a rounded-shaped environment placed before the actual fortification, traditionally defined as “on a corpus de guardhouse”.
The central body of the castle must have had an elongated oval plan, from N/E to S/O, for a width of about 40 m; inside this space you can see remains of a wall wall, now shapeless, as well as tiles and mixed stone. At the top of the mountain, you can see the remains of a square-shaped room next to which there is a partially buried tank, which must have been the base of the tower that has now disappeared, but was still standing in the 19th century.

History of studies
The history of studies concerning the castle of Monte Acuto starts from the volume edited by Barbara Fois, published in 1992, with Foiso Fois's studies on medieval castles in Sardinia; in particular, see the file by Giuseppe Meloni included in the publication. Signed by Giuseppe Meloni and Pietro Modde is the intervention entitled “The castle of Monte Acuto” (1994). More recent is the monograph, also by Meloni, entitled “Daily life in Berchidda between the 18th and the 19th century”, from 2004, in which a nineteenth-century document is examined that provides a series of useful elements also in relation to the castle of Monte Acuto.

Bibliography
F. Fois, Castles of Medieval Sardinia, edited by B. Fois, Cinisello Balsamo, Amilcare Pizzi, 1992, pp. 223-224;
G. Meloni - P. Modde, The Castle of Monte Acuto, in the Sardinian Historical Archive, XXXVII, 1992, pp. 89-121;
G. Meloni - P. Modde, The Castle of Monte Acuto, Ozieri, 1994;
G. Meloni, Daily Life in Berchidda between the 18th and 19th centuries, Sassari, 2004;
G. Serreli, All the Castles of the Four kingdoms, in Darwin.Quaderni, n. 1 (July-August 2006), pp. 104-109.

How to get there
Take the SS 597 in the direction of Olbia, take the junction for Berchidda. A short distance from the town is the castle of Monte Acuto.