Posada, Castello della Fava

Posada is located on the slopes of a limestone hill at the top of which is the tower called “Casteddu de sa Fae” or Fava Castle. From here you can enjoy a beautiful view of the plain below, crossed by the Rio Posada. There are few ruins left of the castle. The historic center of the town, on the slopes of the hill, is remarkable, in which buildings with medieval structures are preserved.
Located on the border between the Kingdom of Gallura and that of Arborea, the town of Posada and its castle were at the center of complex historical events. Although there is no reliable data on the period of construction of the fortification, it can be assumed that in the 13th century the castle had already been erected and the town equipped with fortifications. Posada was the seat of the rulers of Gallura as well as of Eleonora d'Arborea, but it ended up in the hands of the Aragonese around 1380, and then returned to the island under the command of Brancaleone Doria. With the fall of the Giudicato d'Arborea, Posada was bequeathed to the Carròs family and elevated to the rank of barony.
The particular name of the castle, “of the fava bean”, comes from a legend according to which around 1300 a fleet of Turks landed on the island's shores and besieged Posada in an attempt to conquer it by hunger. In an attempt to deceive the besiegers, the inhabitants of Posada made a pigeon eat the last handful of fava beans left, slightly injuring it; during the flight, it fell into the Turkish camp, revealing a stomach full of fava beans and causing the besiegers to overestimate the food resources of the islanders. So it was that the Turks, convinced that they had no hope, lifted the siege and left the coast of the island.
The castle of Posada, built with poorly worked mixed stone ashlars, is divided into an irregular quadrangular wall inside which there is a square tower, with a crenellated crown, and a series of tanks.

History of studies
The history of studies on Castello della Fava starts from the entry 'Posada' edited by Vittorio Angius in the Casalis' Dictionary '(1847). More recently, Raimondo Carta Raspi wrote about it in 1933 and Foiso Fois in 1992, describing the fortified structure, and Angelo Castellaccio in 1990, focusing on historical aspects.

Bibliography
V. Angius, “Posada”, in G. Casalis, Historical, Statistical-Commercial Geographical Dictionary of the States of His Majesty the King of Sardinia, XV, Turin, G. Maspero, 1847, pp. 672-691;
R. Raspi Charter, Medieval Castles of Sardinia, Cagliari, 1933, pp. 84-85;
A. Castellaccio, “Notes on the Castello della Fava”, essays and reviews in the Middle Ages, 15, 1990, pp. 55-83; F. Fois, Castles of medieval Sardinia, edited by B. Fois, Cinisello Balsamo, Amilcare Pizzi, 1992, pp. 195-197;
R. Coroneo, Romanesque Architecture from the Mid-Thousand to the Early '300, Nuoro, Ilisso, 1993, sheet 177;
G. Zirottu, Posada: the castle of Fava, Nuoro, 2003;
G. Serreli, All the castles of the four kingdoms, “Darwin. Notebooks”, n. 1 (July-August 2006), pp. 104-109.

How to get
to Posada, take the SS 125 to the crossroads for the town, 56 km from Nuoro. The castle can be reached from the town.