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CASTELLO
Located at the top of a limestone hill (with a wonderful view of the Gulf of Angels), Castello is the oldest part of the town and the one that better than all the others has maintained the vestiges of its past, still partially enclosed by the bastioned walls. It was probably the site of a trading post already in the 12th century and it was purchased by the Pisan authorities in 1217 and then fortified. Aristocratic families, civil and religious authorities soon began to build their palaces and residences here. Most of its walls are still intact, and its towers (originally they were three that guarded the three gates to the district) are the same that were built in the early 1300s under the Pisan domination.
It is a medieval district and the product of the several dominations that have followed one another throughout the centuries. The most important buildings rose here: the Viceroy Palace, the Bishop's Palace and the Town Hall. All those buildings still exist.
However, Castello represented something more than a centre of power, more than the place where several dominations followed each other: the Pisan, Aragonese, Spanish and Piedmontese dominations. Together with the other historic districts (Marina, Stampace and Villanova neighbourhoods), it maintains the soul of the town and it was (being the seat of the ancient Sardinian parliaments) the place where the civic and political awareness of the Sardinian people gradually developed.
Its appearance today dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries, when the buildings - we see today -took the place of the original ones. Only at the end of the 19th century the district begin to lose its hegemonic role and slowly declined through abandon and neglect. In recent times, restoration works are attempting to give lustre to Castello once again.

Piazza Arsenale
The Ghetto and the museum of towers and castles
Bastions and Basilica di Santa Croce
Torre dell’Elefante
Bastione di S.Remy
Palazzo Boyl
Via Lamarmora & Via Cannelles
Cathedral
The Viceroy’s Palace
Via Martini