One of the best-preserved medieval fortresses in Sardinia, it stands in the village of Posada, in Baronia, in the northeast of the island, shrouded in historical mysteries and legends

Around 1300 a Turkish (or Saracen) fleet besieged Posada trying to conquer it through exhaustion and starvation. To deceive the besiegers, the inhabitants of the fortified village, now exhausted and unable to withstand the battle, made a pigeon eat a handful of fava beans, that is, what was left of their foodstuffs. Before releasing him into the air, they wounded him. The bird fell into the enemy camp with a full stomach: the strange bloat was noticed and so was the copious meal, causing the Arabs to overestimate the castle’s resources: at which point they desisted from the siege. This is the legend from which the name of the Fava Castle, a fortress built by the Judges of Gallura in the 13th century, is derived. The legendary tale does not deviate so much from reality: from the 14th century Posada was a ‘victim’ of raids by Saracen pirates, who eyeballed it from the sea as treasure and often plundered it. Not surprisingly, the medieval village, included in the club of the most beautiful villages in Italy, is a ‘labyrinth’ of narrow alleys and hidden squares: the architecture itself recalls ambushes, assaults and escapes.

The castle, made of poorly worked stone ashlars, can be visited: it stands atop a verdant limestone hill, on whose slope the present town is perched. Climbing the hill easily, you will admire its crenellated tower and the ruins of the city wall, which, with an irregular quadrangular plan, once also surrounded a series of cisterns. From the top, you’ll enjoy a panorama that stretches from the Posada River valley (which you can kayak through) to the enchanting beaches around the seaside town of San Giovanni di Posada. We are in the territory of Tepilora Park, one of the largest and most beautiful green areas on the island with trails that meander through forests, springs, lagoons and sand dunes, ideal for hiking and biking excursions.

In the Judicial age Posada was at the height of its historical events, a borderland between the giudicati of Gallura and Arborea. The castle was long disputed between the two kingdoms and in 1380 it also ended up in the hands of the Aragonese and then returned to the Arborensians under Brancaleone Doria. Unlikely to have been military garrison, rather home of judges, perhaps even of Eleanor of Arborea. Some people think it was an ante litteram tourist residence. Posada was a border place even before the Middle Ages, the very place-name Pausata indicates ‘stopping station’ and ‘frontier place.’ Its history began about the 5th century BC on the ashes of the Phoenician Feronia, possibly an Italic-Etruscan settlement, one of the oldest Sardinian settlements.