Castelsardo, Doria Castle

The castle is home to the “Museum of Mediterranean Weaving”, and can be visited by purchasing a museum ticket.
The town of Castelsardo occupies a hill overlooking the sea, at the top of which is the historic center, which corresponds to the urban core of the ancient Castelgenovese area; the new part of the town expands from the promontory, in a series of concentric rings.
Castelsardo is one of the most picturesque towns in Sardinia, especially because of its historic center, perched on a promontory overlooking the sea. It changed its name over the centuries, depending on the political forces that controlled it, using it as a defensive stronghold and strategic point of control not only of the territory but also of the maritime routes that passed through Sardinia.
The fortified city was founded with the name of Castelgenovese, as a possession of the Ligurian Doria family. After being one of the bulwarks in the fight against the Catalan-Aragonese invading forces in the 14th century, it was conquered by them and became Castellaragonese, and then took on the current name of Castelsardo. The continued use as a fortified city has meant that over the years the defensive structures have also changed, from simple towers to more complex bastion defense systems.
The walls that enclose the town look like a series of bastions and towers, some of which overlook the sea, connected by a powerful wall. The masonry technique is not accurate: in fact, mixed stone is used, summarily worked, with the use of square edges to give solidity to the edges.
It is difficult today to read the structures of the Middle Ages. Access to the town was through a door “to the sea”, to the E, and a “land” door to S. Within the fortified walls, of irregular shape, in N/E there was the cathedral, close to the door “to the sea”, while in S/O there was the castle. This, consisting of a series of adjacent rooms, included a central room, the residence of the Doria family, pantries for food, a tank, a guard outpost for the troops.

History of studies
The studies on Castelsardo cannot ignore Salvatore Rattu's monograph on the towers and bastions of Castelsardo (1953) and the contribution of Foiso Fois in the volume “Castles of Medieval Sardinia” (1992), aimed at determining the historical and urban physiognomy of the fortified town.

Bibliography
S. Rattu, Bastioni e torri di Castelsardo, Torino, 1953;
F. Fois, Castelli della Sardegna medioevale, a cura di B. Fois, Cinisello Balsamo, Amilcare Pizzi, 1992, pp. 270-275;
F. Segni Pulvirenti - A. Sari, Architettura tardogotica e d'influsso rinascimentale. Nuoro, Ilisso, 1994, scheda 19;
G. Serreli, Tutti i castelli dei quattro regni, "Darwin. Quaderni", n. 1 (luglio-agosto 2006), pp. 104-109.

Tag

Structure category: Monument or Monumental Complex

Content type: Fortified architecture
Ethnography and anthropology

Province: Sassari

Common: Castelsardo

Macro Territorial Area: Northern Sardinia

POSTAL CODE: 07031

Address: via Guglielmo Marconi, s.n.c.

Telephone: +39 079 6014769 +39 347 1118547

E-mail: direzione.museointreccio@gmail.com

Website: www.mimcastelsardo.it/it/index.html

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mimcastelsardo/?locale=it_IT

Information on tickets and access: For information regarding the usability of the “Castello dei Doria”, please refer to the manager of the Museum of Mediterranean Weaving, which is located inside the castle.

Update

16/7/2024 - 09:55

Where is it

Images