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OLBIA Located at the end of a gulf which is well sheltered from wind and sea storms, the natural port of Olbia turned out to be precious.jpg)
ever since the Nuragic period. Several testimonies of that period have been found in the territory, which was probably rich in fertile soils, pastures and – above all – excellent calls favouring oversea relations.
The small bronze ship found in Enas (a small hamlet few kilometers from Olbia) dates back to that period. It is a votive object that is evidence of maritime presence in the territory of Olbia. Nowadays, the Port Authority of Olbia, Golfo Aranci and Porto Torres uses this ship as a symbol in its logo.
In the 7th Century b.C. Greeks did probably frequent Olbia for a short period of time but, in spite of what the origin of its name may suggest (Ολβιος/ Olbiòs/ felice), according to the latest findings Punics are believed to be the first to leave a mark of a proper urban settlement that can be dated between the 5th and the 4th Century b.C.
Later, Carthagenians surrounded the town with walls and towers, building an acropolis in the highest area. History tells that in 535 b.C. , in the water area included between the Gulf and Corsica, a fleet composed of sixty ships belonging to the Alalia Colony clashed with a fleet of Etruscan and Punic ships, allied in order to prevent Greeks from reaching the Tyrrhenian Sea. This violent clash is believed to be – in many people’s opinion – the 1st big sea battle in Western seas.
When Romans occupied Sardinia in 238 b.C., the town became a trading centre as well as an important military naval base. It was connected to the rest of the Island through three important main roads used both by legionaries and merchants carrying goods. At that time, Olbia was the starting point for ships loaded with goods going to the capital city.
During the rule of Rome (238 b.C. – 455 a.C.) Olbia went on being the crux of a thick network of commercial transactions with Africa, Balearic Islands, Spain, Campania and Sicily. There is plenty of testimonies of this long period, above all in the port field. In 1999, during excavation works aimed at building the tunnel on the seafront, a lot of Roman ships and harbor ruins have been found, enabling historians to reconstruct the port activity since its beginning up to 1700 a.C.
After the Roman period, the town and its port had hard times. Around the middle of 400 a.C., Sardinia was invaded by Vandals and Olbia was attacked and vanquished by Vandals coming from the sea: it was set on fire and and destroyed together with moored ships. It took a hard blow and at the end of the 6th Century the town assumed a new name: Phausania. According to several historians this name was owes its origin to inhabitants moving to the country, but recent studies assume that Phausania could have been situated on San Simplicio’s hill. Last years’ excavations and studies – on the contrary – suggest a permanent settlement.
In this period, the port did not stop its activity. It kept trading but in a smaller scale as to Roman and Punic age. From the 8th to the 12th Century, Arabs tried to conquer Sardinia attracted by its silver mines. This is when Sardinia, always in the alert, separated from Byzantium and was divided in four parts which were called Giudicati (Cagliari, Torres, Arborea and Gallura). In 1296, when Giudice Nino Visconti - mentioned by Dante Alighieri in his Divine Comedy with the ephitet Giudice Nin gentil (Noble Judge Nino) - died, the Giudicato of Gallura fell into Pisa’s hands. Pisans decided to name it Terranova (while the term Civita would stay to indicate the diocese administratively).
During this spell, Olbia made its comeback. It became a walled town, center of religious and civil power. But this period of prosperity 
came to a stop a couple of years later, during the Aragonese domination. Under this rule the feudal regime – cause of the disintegration of the Giudicato of Gallura - was set up, and the territory continued being divided in Curatorie. Inhabitants moved to the country and built conglomerations of Stazzi, characteristic Sardinian country houses.
During the Reign of Sardinia and after the Unification of Italy the basis for the end of the feudal regime were laid, and the town started growing again thanks to important interventions such as port sweeping, shipping trade restarting, railway and minor roads construction. In the 2nd half of the 19th Century the town was renamed “Terranova Pausania” and came back to life because there was no more danger coming from the sea.
Fundamental for the subsequent growth of the town were Terranova port redevelopment (from 1870 on, all Municipalities of Gallura gave their contribution) and the railway construction (the Sassari – Chilivani – Monti – Terranova line, opened in 1881, which was followed by the extention 
to Golfo Aranci and in 1889 by the Monti – Tempio branch line) that lead to a urban rebirth of the town that in that period used to have 3000 inhabitants – most of them were fishermen (and, in turn, in this group there was a marked preponderance of people of Ponzese origin) and farmers. Nevertheless, the fact that the gulf was so inland as to the coastal line used to make berthing operations difficult, and that is why General La Marmora suggested that a new port should have been built in Capo Figari, together with the foundation of a new urban settlement called “Olbia Nova”. In 1880 the steamship to and from Civitavecchia – passengers and mail service – began to dock at Figari (today, Golfo Aranci) instead of Terranova, with consequent extention of the railway, and it prevented Olbia from dealing with nothing but goods and military traffic. Only after 1920, in consequence of a popular rising, the Civitavecchia – Terranova line was opened up again. It boosted an economic, trading and demographic recovery in the centre while – following port’s widening and docks building works, in 1930 the Maritime Station was opened.
But the biggest change happened in the 60’s, when Prince Karim Aga Khan invested in Costa Smeralda. Thus, the well known, important tourist boom that had great repercussions in the field of passengers traffic began. In the 80’s – after a ministerial decree stated the importance of the Call on a national level – the town gained substantial financings that gave the green light to the construction of both the 7th and then the 8th hauling places in the northern wet dock, the new Maritime Station and the Industrial Port.
GOLFO ARANCI
Is a typical small town that separated from Olbia and became an independent municipality in 1979. Its name, Golfo Aranci, is subject to several hypothesis: .jpg)
it may come from a printing error on the gallurese toponym “Golfu di li Ranci” (Crabs’ gulf).
In prehistory Golfo Aranci’s territory was already occupied and it kept being occupied over the centuries, then it was completely abandoned during the aragonese domination. The holy well of Milis – close to the railway station, which construction severely damaged the well itself, confirms human presence ever since remote times.
By constructing port, railway and relative goods yard, this town had its development boosted. When Costa Smeralda was founded, Golfo Aranci got galvanized, thanks to the passengers service made by ferries belonging first to Italian State Railways and then to Sardinia Ferries.
PORTO TORRES
Located on a calcareous promontory in the northern coast of Sardinia, facing the Gulf of Asinara, Porto Torres is one of the main ports connecting Sardinia to the peninsula and, in Summer, to France.
Its history dates back to Miocene Era, from which all rests of crocodiles and small giraffes found in the area called “Fiumesanto” should belong to. Particularly interesting is the discovery of some remains of Oreopithecus, an ape that lived about 8 million years ago.
First human communities were born during prehistory, with the first prenuragic gatherings that left us some necropolis ( Su Crucifissu Mannu, Li Lioni, Campu Perdu in the Asinara surroundings) and the unique prenuragic altar on Monte d’Accoddi, a sanctuary situated on a hill consisting of a monumental ceremonial ramp, which purpose was probably propitiating fertility through special rites, on the occasion of the beginning of the farmer’s year.
On the contrary, several nuraghi – prehistoric monuments tower-shaped – date back to the Bronze age. There’s plenty of them, but 7 are specially known (Nuraghe Margone, Biunis, Nieddu, Sant’Elena, and so on).
Particularly interesting is also the domus in Andriolu, a group of tombs similar to domus de janas belonging to the nuragic period: following a pattern once widespread in Nurra and Sassari’s regions, the hypogeum’s façade had been embellished with fronton, lunette and exedra, giants’ tombs typical elements.
During the Phoenician-Punic age the area was probably frequented by Phoenician seamen and, later, by Carthaginians, as shown by some findings referring to the cult of Hercules, a
strengthening talisman devoted to the God Bes, a Punic stele made of trachytic tuff adorned with a human fugure in the middle, a Greek (Ionic) cup dating back to the 6th Century b.C., two lekithoi (vessels once containing oils and perfumes), a Greek oil lamp, a Punic razor and other ceramic rests.
During the Roman domination it became Colonia Iulia of Turris Libisonis, likely founded by Julius Caesar in 46 b.C. in occasion of his stay in Sardinia, or by Ottaviano through his legate Marco Lurio, who was in the island between 42 and 40 b.C.
One interpretation of the name is that the first part of it, “Turris”,is linked to one of the monuments already existing before the colony was founded, most likely a nuragic tower that the ancients believed to be built by a “libic” population – that is where the second part of the name, “Libisonis”, comes from.
Since it was founded, this town used to have a direct connection both to the river and to the sea. Many people think that the first Port of Call and the first building could have been built close to the mouth of Riu Mannu, a river that can be navigated for several miles. The main activities in Turris Libisonis were just navigation and fishing. Several monuments devoted to Bastet - Egyptian Goddess represented with cat’s head and woman’s chest – are evidences of it.
During the 5th Century a.C. the town was attacked by Vandals and then dominated by Byzantines until – under the name of Torres – it was declared first capital of the homonym medieval Giudicato. Belonging to this period is also the romanic-pisan 
style monumental Basilica consecrated to San Gavino, built on mount Agellu during the 11th Century a.C. on the former paleochristian-pagan cemetery area. In the 12th Century Torres, the only coastal outlet in Sassari surroundings, was in the middle of the fight between Pisa and Genoa which purpose was to decide who would exercise control over Mediterranean trading goods traffic.
After the Aragonese domination (1323-1479), and after the seat of Archdiocese was moved from Porto Torres to Sassari in 1441, the town was ruled by Spanish people and lost its initial vitality also because of the spreading of malaria.
But they still had to make use of the port when – after the Savoia Family arrived – several interventions in the port area were promoted.
In 1842 Porto Torres finally gained the independence from Sassari. The town we know today was born from the combination of the quarter surrounding the Basilica of San Gavino and the port of Torres, a fishermen’s neighborhood close to the Aragonese Tower.
During the first half of the 20th Century this town’s economy, previously based on farming and partly on fishing, was supplemented by mining resources’ exportation from the iron mine of Canaglia, already used during the Roman domination.
The mine was connected to Porto Torres through a narrow-gauge railway forwarding the ore straight to Ponte Romano, a branch of “Società Siderurgica Mineraria Ferromin” running Canaglia. Today we still can see some frameworks, two towers, some silos made of trachyte intended for collecting material that was subsequently channeled towards a complex lower tunnels’ system (still existing) and then placed on conveyors that – through an aerial ropeway – reached the landing wharf (in today’s Revenue Guard Corps building surroundings) where the material would be loaded on steamships bound for peninsula’s foundries.
In 1962 Porto Torres was declared regionally interesting area and industrialization point, quickly turning into headquarter of “Sarda Industrie Resine” (SIR) petrochemical plants. The new chemical industry soon left a mark on and leaded to a dramatic economic, social and planning change in a town destined to become one of the most important petrochemical industry centers in Sardinia, as confirmed by the population growth that – between 1961 and 1971 – passed from 11.000 to 15.000 inhabitants.
Nowadays, this town is one of the most interesting destinations north-east of Sardinia. Visitors are offered pleasant walks in the center of town, visits to local shops selling typical products
and handicrafts and walks on the promenade where, at the end of a wonderful outing, one can admire the small church devoted to San Gavino a Mare on the rock of Balai (close to the famous beach) and, following the cycle-lane, the church of Balai Lontano, where according to religious tradition all three patron saints of Porto Torres – Gavino, Proto and Gianuario – were martyrized. In their honour, the town holds a popular fair on Saturday, Whitsunday and Monday: this feast is called “Festha Manna” (Great Feast).
Along the Asinara coast, where Porto Torres is located, there’s plenty of long sandy shores, ideal for bathing, and picturesque seaboards of calcareous cliffs characterized by several sea caves one can easily reach by small boats.
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