Balaiana Castle and the Church of San Leonardo

Cronologia: XI secolo

Balaiana1

Foto di Giacomo Calvia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Chiesa S. Leonardo di Balaiana
On the summit of Monte San Leonardo, in the municipality of Luogosanto, stands the castle of Balaiana. It was built by the workforce from the Pisan school around 1050 on the wishes of the Judge of Gallura Costantino I.

The walls are square blocks of local granite; its layout is trapezoidal with three rooms on the ground floor and an east-facing entrance. The building most likely had two floors. In the construction elevation, restored in the 1990s, you can see numerous holes for inserting the wooden beams at the base of the upper storey floor. There is a granite basin in the entrance chamber which possible served as the castle’s water supply. This was destroyed in 1422 by the Catalan-Aragonese.

A few dozen metres north of the castle, on a granite plateau stands the church of San Leonardo, one of the smallest Romanesque churches in Sardinia. This was the castle’s chapel. It has a single barrel-vaulted nave; exposed apse on the eastern side; three small light sources (one in the gable, one on the southern side and one in the apse) and the entrance on the eastern side. The building has a double pitch roof but is in stonework rather than tiles.

Follow the country road SP14 Luogosanto-Arzachena to reach the site.

At about 4 km from Luogosanto you will come to the car park with picnic area and the path up to the castle starts from here. Most of it is large stretches of a flight of steps which compensates for the difference in height of about 100 m between the base and top of the hill.

Gallery

Bibliografia

Ingresso: Libero
Parcheggio: Si
Distanza a piedi: 500m
Sentiero segnalato: Si
Difficoltà: Media difficoltà
Altitudine: 279m
Bar: No
Accessibilità motoria: Parziale

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