WONDERFUL SAND BEACHES AND AN UNCONTAMINATED BACK COUNTRY

The complex is located on the south-east coast of Sardinia, an area rich with charming landscapes, where the crystal clear sea skirts the long sandy beaches, from the white sand of Cala Pira, Monte Turno and Sant’Elmo to the golden pink sand found on San Pietro, Cala Marina, Cala Sinzias, Villa Rey and Santa Giusta.  The inland offers marvellous forests where you will have the chance to explore an uncontaminated natural environment protecting live oaks, centuries old junipers, oleanders, strawberry tree and odorous myrtle. Costa Rey (around 7 kms away) and Villasimius (10 kms away) will offer you all the services and shopping you may require.

CAGLIARI AND THE COMUNE OF CASTIADAS
The 13 kilometres of Castiadas coast start from the south of Costa Rei, with the secluded Santa Giusta beach, famous for its enormous turtle shaped rock formation, known as Scoglio di Peppino (Peppino’s cliff). Following the coast you will find a hill called Monte Turno that protects the marvellous Cala Sant’Elmo, composed by little sandy bays and cliffs.

A SECULAR HISTORY WHICH HAS FULFILLED THE TERRITORY WITH ITS ANCIENT SIGNS
The town of Villanova Castiadas was founded at the end of the 14th century in the Sarrabus area; following a series of pest epidemics and malaria, the town was abandoned for about 350 years at the end of the 16th century. In the middle of the 19th century, the Ministry of the Interior decided to use it as an agricultural convict centre where the inmates could reclaim the land, unhealthy and left abandoned for many years, as well as serving their sentence. On the August 11, 1875, 30 inmates from the Casa Penale di San Bartolomeo, arrived on a solitary beach called Cala Sinzias and walked through the bush led by the Cavalier Eugenio Cicognani, the Gaol’s General Inspector. After a long walk through an unknown territory, the inmates settled on the Praidis hill, between two small rivers: Gutturu Frasca and Baccu Sa Figu.

The convict settlement was closed in 1952, when the E.T.F.A.S. (the Sardinia Rural and Agricultural Transformation Fund), today called E.R.S.A.T., was founded. In the early 1950’s the E.T.F.A.S. tried to start an agricultural reform, dividing Castiadas in seven properties: Annunziata, Sabadi, Orteduso, Castiadas, San Pietro, Capoferrato and Tuerra (the latter two belonging to Muravera and San Vito). It bought 8 thousand hectares and created 405 properties, reduced to 235 when the 1960’s restructuring took place, and decreased again to 216 in 1968. On top of the seven properties in Castiadas, the centers of Olia Speciosa and Annunziata were built in order to become a social centre for the new landowners, who could benefit from of schools, churches, services and recreational clubs. In the 1960’s, a number of Italian refugees coming from Tunisia arrived in Castiadas and settled in Sabadi, Orteduso and San Pietro; they were quickly given a portion of land. This fact caused a drastic chance in the social and cultural relations within the community. Today Castiadas is an autonomous council (law of March 11, 1986) and is completely independent from Villaputzu, San Vito and Muravera.