Osilo, Malaspina Castle

On the top of Mount Tuffudesu, inside the town of Osilo, stands the Malaspina castle. The whole surrounding area is full of important archaeological sites, which date back to prehistoric times.
There is no reliable data on the construction of the castle of Osilo, hypothetically placed in the 12th century. In 1272, the fortification appeared among the possessions of the Malaspina family, originally from Lunigiana, whose arrival in Sardinia dates back to 1016 on the occasion of the expedition against the Arabs led by Museto. As a result of this expedition, the Malaspinas received from the Holy See a series of lands on which they built fortifications: one of these was the castle of Osilo, guarding the borders of Anglona, Nurra and Gallura. Throughout the 14th century, the castle of Osilo was at the center of disputes between Arborense and Aragonese, often changing master, until the beginning of its slow decline, at the beginning of the 15th century when it passed into fief to the Centelles family.
Articulated in an elongated oval plan, the castle had to enclose a space of about 1000 square meters: the constituent elements were the wall and two towers, one with a circular plan of dark basalt and one with a square plan in tuff ashlars. Not much can be said about the division of the interior spaces, given the scarcity of remains; however, it can be imagined that there were accommodations for the troops and for the castellan, as well as warehouses for food and weapons.

History of studies
For Osilo and his castle are significant contributions: the monograph edited by Francesco Liperi Tolu, from 1913 but reprinted in 1991, the article by Angelo Castellaccio in the proceedings of a 1978 conference (published in 1981) and the discussion in Foiso Fois's volume “Castles of Medieval Sardinia”, in 1992.

Bibliography
V. Angius, “Osilo”, in G. Casalis Historical, Statistical and Commercial Geographical Dictionary of the States by H.M. the King of Sardinia, XIII, Turin, G. Maspero, 1845, pp. 629-631;
F. Liperi Tolu, Osilo, Sassari, 1913;
A. Castellaccio, “The medieval castle of Osilo”, in Sardinia in the Mediterranean World, Sassari, 1981, pp. 325-348; F. Fois, Castles of Medieval Sardinia, edited by Barbara Fois, Cinisello Balello Samo, Amilcare Pizzi, 1992, pp. 297-302; G. Serreli, All the castles of the four kingdoms, “Darwin. Notebooks”, n. 1 (July-August 2006), pp. 104-109.