Located on high ground overlooking the town of Chiaramonti, the Doria Castle was part of the impenetrable complex of strongholds which the Ligurians built in Sardinia to defend themselves against attacks from the Aragonese.
Precisely because of its strategic position, the castle became the subject of a dispute between the Judge Mariano IV, who wanted it as part of his daughter Eleonora’s dowry in her marriage to Brancaleone Doria, and the king of Aragona Pietro IV, who wanted to lay claim to it by having one of his trusted courtiers marry Violante Doria, Brancaleone’s sister.
The fortress had a quadrangular tower and defence wall which enclosed the buildings designated to house the crossbowmen and soldiers. After Sardinia definitively fell under Aragonese domination in 1420, the decision was taken to re-model the structure by creating a Late-Gothic church, the remains of which are still visible today, together with what was probably the foundations of the bell tower.
