Castle Hill

The hill has a trapezoidal shape whose boundaries were once well marked by numerous towers of Pisan era in the Middle Ages. In this time the hill was equipped with a complex system of ramparts and towers of which still preserved the Elephant tower in the West side, the Eagle tower, (part of which was incorpored into Palazzo Boyl) in the East side, and finally San Pancrazio's tower in the North side. Along the eastern side lies the scenic stroll of the Terreplain and the Public Gardens, where they were built solid retaining walls close to Belvedere ridges. To the West, the two ramparts of Santa Croce and Balice offer a magnificent view of the bay and the lagoon. Moreover the Terreplain, in its side of via del Cammino Nuovo, located at the foot of the hill, allows to contemplate the medieval walls of which is possible to identify the different building phases. The old medieval fortress was used later by Spaniards and Piedmontese, who modified the military structures for defensive purposes. The value of the buildings shows how this part of the city was home of dominant groups in the previous centuries, to be inhabited later, since the end of the Second World War, from the underclass. Nowadays in addition to the original inhabitants, live there also immigrants, artists, students and families of the new middle class of Cagliari.