HISTORY AND CULTURE

The Castle of Ogliastra

ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT MEDIEVAL RESOURCES IN OGLIASTRA.

The ruins of the Ogliastra Castle (castrum de Ullastre), also known as the Castle of Medusa, are located a short distance from the sea, on a small granite hill, near the southern entrance to the town of Lotzorai.

The fortress, bordered by two rivers, the Pramaera and the Rio Girasole, was built to defend the fertile valley, guarding the pond and the valuable harbor, likely identified with the ancient Sulpicius Portus, as well as the nearby iron, copper, and silver mines. The choice of site was also strategic because it lay along the eastern coastal road that led from Castrum (Cagliari) to Terranova, ancient Olbia. The exact date of its first construction is unknown.

Possibly built during the Giudicati period, it is thought to have been erected on the ruins of a Nuragic structure and a later Punic-Roman temple.

CASTRUM DE ULLASTRE

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the heartfelt appeal of Pope Benedict VIII and the Giudici had led the Republics of Pisa and Genoa to join forces to free Sardinia from Saracen incursions, thus laying the foundation for the progressive interference of the two maritime powers. In 1258, Ogliastra fell into the hands of the Giudice di Gallura, the Pisan Giovanni Visconti. The first mention of the castle dates back to 1305, when, under the name of castrum de Ollastro, William of Ricoveranza, political agent in Italy for the King of Aragon, described the castle among those owned by Giudicessa Giovanna Visconti, heir of Nino, whom the Supreme Poet Dante immortalized in Canto VIII of Purgatory.

In a letter dated March 2, 1308, Vanni Gattarelli, a Pisan exile, reported that Pisa, in anticipation of an imminent Aragonese invasion, was destroying several castles, including that of Ogliastra.

The garrison, the most important administrative center not only for the Villa Loçorai de Planitio but for the entire surrounding territory, was perhaps only partially destroyed, or immediately rebuilt, as it was then governed by a castellan and a “giudice di facto” until 1323. The last was Piero Fini de Perlascio.

That same year, with the Catalan-Aragonese conquest, the people of Ogliastra, hoping to escape the pressing Pisan taxation, demonstrated from the outset their desire to submit to the new rulers. The main source for a historical overview of the first phase of the Aragonese conquest is the work Anales by Gerolamo Zurita y Castro, which in turn drew on the Catalan-language chronicle of Ramon Muntaner (1265-1336).

The keep of Ullastre, partially dismantled by the Pisans themselves, was granted to the Iberian nobleman Andreu de Castellet and, on May 10 of the following year, to the nobleman Francesco Carròs, the protagonist of the conquest of the island, as recorded in the Crònica di Pietro il Ceremonioso, “… and they came to the port of Ullastre and occupied the castle…” It was the Infante Alfonso himself, son of King James II of Aragon, who wrote to his father in September that while Admiral Carròs was docking in the Ogliastra port to resupply his twenty galleys with water and wood, he had received demonstrations of respect from representatives of the surrounding villas and the “castrum Uylastre,” who clearly expressed their desire to submit. The first villas to be enfeoffed were Tortolì and Lotzorai. The front of the Ogliastra castle is clearly depicted on Sigismondo Arquer’s map of Sardinia from 1550.

Gian Luisa Carracoi

Delegate for Ogliastra of the Istituto dei Castelli, Sardinia Section

CASTRUM DE ULLASTRE

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the heartfelt appeal of Pope Benedict VIII and the Giudici had led the Republics of Pisa and Genoa to join forces to free Sardinia from Saracen incursions, thus laying the foundation for the progressive interference of the two maritime powers. In 1258, Ogliastra fell into the hands of the Giudice di Gallura, the Pisan Giovanni Visconti. The first mention of the castle dates back to 1305, when, under the name of castrum de Ollastro, William of Ricoveranza, political agent in Italy for the King of Aragon, described the castle among those owned by Giudicessa Giovanna Visconti, heir of Nino, whom the Supreme Poet Dante immortalized in Canto VIII of Purgatory.

In a letter dated March 2, 1308, Vanni Gattarelli, a Pisan exile, reported that Pisa, in anticipation of an imminent Aragonese invasion, was destroying several castles, including that of Ogliastra.

The garrison, the most important administrative center not only for the Villa Loçorai de Planitio but for the entire surrounding territory, was perhaps only partially destroyed, or immediately rebuilt, as it was then governed by a castellan and a “giudice di facto” until 1323. The last was Piero Fini de Perlascio.

That same year, with the Catalan-Aragonese conquest, the people of Ogliastra, hoping to escape the pressing Pisan taxation, demonstrated from the outset their desire to submit to the new rulers. The main source for a historical overview of the first phase of the Aragonese conquest is the work Anales by Gerolamo Zurita y Castro, which in turn drew on the Catalan-language chronicle of Ramon Muntaner (1265-1336).

The keep of Ullastre, partially dismantled by the Pisans themselves, was granted to the Iberian nobleman Andreu de Castellet and, on May 10 of the following year, to the nobleman Francesco Carròs, the protagonist of the conquest of the island, as recorded in the Crònica di Pietro il Ceremonioso, “… and they came to the port of Ullastre and occupied the castle…” It was the Infante Alfonso himself, son of King James II of Aragon, who wrote to his father in September that while Admiral Carròs was docking in the Ogliastra port to resupply his twenty galleys with water and wood, he had received demonstrations of respect from representatives of the surrounding villas and the “castrum Uylastre,” who clearly expressed their desire to submit. The first villas to be enfeoffed were Tortolì and Lotzorai. The front of the Ogliastra castle is clearly depicted on Sigismondo Arquer’s map of Sardinia from 1550.

Gian Luisa Carracoi

Delegate for Ogliastra of the Istituto dei Castelli, Sardinia Section

IMAGE GALLERY

The Castle of Ogliastra