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Chiaramonti, Doria Castle

Chiaramonti, Doria Castle

Chiaramonti, Doria Castle

The town of Chiaramonti is located near the Iscanneddu river, a watercourse that runs through Anglona, in an area rich in archaeological sites dating back to the Nuragic era.
The castle of Chiaramonti, like many others in the north of the island, was a possession of the Ligure Doria family and was part of the defensive line put in place by the Ligurians to protect their possessions in Anglona. These, in the 14th century, fiercely opposed the advance of the Catalan-Aragonese troops in Sardinia, weaving a network of fortifications to guard the territory.
One of these structures is the castle of Chiaramonti: this owes its name to the maternal surname of Brancaleone Doria, husband of Eleonora d'Arborea. Precisely in the 14th century, this structure was the subject of contention by the ruler of Arborea, Mariano IV, who yearned to own Chiaramonti, just as King Peter IV of Aragon in turn hoped to take possession of it thanks to the marriage of one of his courtiers with Brancaleone's sister Doria.
Originally, the castle had to consist of a square-shaped tower inserted in a wall containing a building designed to house militias. All that remains is the shape of the tower, since everything else was converted in Aragonese times into a church. Today this appears as a single-aisle building, with eight chapels that open to the sides; in the apsidal area you can see the remains of ribbed cross vaults, while leaning against one of the sides of the church is what looks like a bell tower, made of ashlar of white limestone.

History of studies
As with many of the medieval fortifications in Sardinia, studies on the castle of Chiaramonti are not abundant. As a bibliographic indication, reference can be made to the study by Foiso Fois in the volume “Castles of Medieval Sardinia”, from 1992, where a brief description accompanied by photographs can be read.

Bibliography by
R. Carta Raspi, Medieval Castles of Sardinia, Cagliari, 1933;
F. Fois, Castles of Medieval Sardinia, edited by B. Fois, Cinisello Balsamo, Amilcare Pizzi, 1992, pp. 282-284; G. Serreli, All the Castles of the Four Kingdoms, “Darwin.
Notebooks”, n. 1 (July-August 2006), pp. 104-109.

How to
get there
Leave the SS 131 after the junction for Ozieri, to take the 127 towards Tempio Pausania. After about twenty kilometers you reach the town of Chiaramonti, in the upper part of which the castle is located

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Content type: Fortified architecture

Province: Sassari

Common: Chiaramonti

Macro Territorial Area: Northern Sardinia

POSTAL CODE: 07030

Address: via al Castello, s.n.c.

Update

29/9/2023 - 13:07

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