Sardara, Castle of Monreale

In the center of the town of Sardara, near the church of Sant'Anastasia, there was a Nuragic sanctuary with a well temple. Traces of Punic and Roman settlements remain in the territory. In the town of Santa Maria is Acquas, a Roman station was located along the main road connecting the north and south of the island. The presence of spring water determined the installation of thermal baths, which are still active today. In judicial times, the territory was guarded by the castle of Monreale, on the border between the kingdom of Cagliari and that of Arborea. The fortification stands on the homonymous hill and dominates a large part of the Campidano plain.
Located along the border between the kingdom of Arborea and the kingdom of Cagliari, the castle of Monreale, together with that of Marmilla and Arcuentu, was part of the defensive line of the Arborean court.
There is no reliable information on the date of its erection, but the castle is mentioned in a document from 1309 as a donation by King James II of Aragon to Mariano and Andreotto de Bas, rulers of Arborea, who entrusted its administration to the municipality of Pisa.
Used as a royal residence for the stay of the wife of the infant Alfonso of Aragon in 1324, the castle of Monreale played a crucial role in the war between Arborea and Iberian troops, also acting as a refuge for the island army en route after the battle of Sanluri. At the end of the 15th century, it became the property of the Counts of Quirra.
The fortified complex of Monreale is divided into a real castle, located on top of the homonymous hill, and in a village below. It is surrounded by a wall with eight towers, with both a square and a circular plan. The perimeter walls of the castle are clearly visible, about 10 m high and devoid of slits or windows, which enclosed three courtyards located in the center and surrounded by a series of rooms located on the N, E and S. Wells and tanks, underground and vaulted, were located near the S side, while access to the upper floors was guaranteed by masonry stairs.

History of studies
For Sardara and the castle of Monreale, we start with the voice “Sardara” (1849) by Vittorio Angius, to move on to the work of Dionigi Scano in 1907. More recent are the works of Foiso Fois, including one from 1979, the other from 1992. Also noteworthy are the 1982 article by Giuseppe Spiga and the fact sheet in the volume by Roberto Coroneo (1993). Francesca Carrada published an article from 2003, which reports the results of archaeological investigations, which have allowed the recovery of abundant ceramic artifacts.

Bibliography
V. Angius, “Sardara”, in G. Casalis Historical and Statistical-Commercial Geographical Dictionary of the States of His Excellency the King of Sardinia, XVIII, Turin, G. Maspero, 1849, pp. 904-907;
D. Scano, History of art in Sardinia from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, Cagliari-Sassari, Montorsi, 1907, p. 388;
F. Fois, “A bulwark to protect the plain”, in Almanacco di Cagliari, 1979, without pages; G. Spiga, “Notes on the castle of Monreale in Arreale “Borea”, in Historical notes on San Gavino Monreale, Oristano, 1982;
F. Fois, Castles of medieval Sardinia, edited by B. Fois, Cinisello Balsamo, Amilcare Pizzi, 1992, pp. 152-158;
R. Coroneo, Romanesque architecture from the middle of the thousand to the early '300, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1993, sheet 175;
F. Carrada, “The castle of Monreale: assessment of a decade of studies and activities”, in Roccas: aspects of the traditional system of fortification in Sardinia: acts of meetings on castles in Sardinia (2002) by the Arxiu de curated by S. Chirra, Oristano, 2003, pp. 121-143;
G. Serreli, All the Castles of the Four Kingdoms, “Darwin. Notebooks”, n. 1 (July-August 2006), pp. 104-109.