The Poetto is the main beach in the city of Cagliari and Quartu Sant’Elena and, generally serving the metropolitan city. The beach is a single unit which, from a purely administrative point of view, is split between Cagliari (Poetto) and Quartu (Quartu Beach or Poetto di Quartu).
Overall, the beach stretches for a total of around seven and a half kilometres, from the small port if Marina Piccola (Cagliari) to Margine Rosso (Quartu S.Elena).
In the past, the inhabitants of the city of Cagliari, preferred beaches to the west of the city (like the beach of Giorgino). The area of Poetto was linked mainly to salt extraction, which began as far back as Roman times continuing on from the Middle Ages right up to modern times (officially until 1985).
In the second half of the XVI century, a number of lookout towers were built on the sandy shore during the Spanish domination of the island, and their ruins can still be seen on the beach. Their purpose was to defend the city from Barbareschi invasions by sea.
From the start of the XX century, the inhabitants of Cagliari “discovered” the beach and the first beach resorts and kiosks started to appear together with a summer camp and traditional multicoloured wooden houses, built on the sandy shore’s stilts, which were known as “casotti” (completely removed in 1986).
Nowadays, it is the most popular beach and is one of the largest urban beaches in Europe, so much so that it is called the “Beach of the hundred thousand“.
Its original sand is fine and clear, its seabeds aren’t too deep and the sea water is clear and transparent.
Following increasingly insistent anthropic activity on the beach, removal of sand for building use, construction of roads and building in the dune area and the withdrawal of the Posidonia oceanica meadow, scientific research in 1989, showed a high level of erosion and decline in the sandy shore.
This led to different “restoration” works on the beach, starting with the disputed beach nourishment in 2002, up to more recent interventions to reconstruct the dune system with naturalistic engineering procedures.
The Molentargius-Saline Nature Reserve can be reached from the beach across the “Vie del sale“, with an entrance right behind the seafront. The park is one of the island’s most important naturalistic sites with the nesting of different bird species like the Pink Flamingo.
It is easy to reach the beach from the city centre. There is a full range of bathing facilities, kiosks and restaurants. There is also plenty of parking and amateur sports events are organised on the seafront.
The name Poetto probably derives from the Catalan word “Pouet“, from “Pou” (well).
