The castle of Serravalle is an imposing hilltop fortification in Sardinia, easy to visit and best viewed from the surrounding hills. The castle dates from the thirteenth century and is most famous for the fourteenth century frescoes in the chapel inside the walls.
How to Visit Serravalle Castle
As you can see from the pictures, you can’t really miss the castle. You can however miss the car park. Make sure you take the road on the west side of the castle as that leads to the car park. From there it is a short walk up to the castle itself. The castle is mostly the outer walls now, other than the chapel I don’t think there were any buildings left inside. The castle website is linked below for access times and costs. There was no cafe open inside the walls when we visited although I think there were toilets.
My Experience
This is taken from my Sardinian road trip blog here:
Our Sardinian road trip continued as we left the old capital of Oristano and drove north. There was no single main route and the road started by following the coast which was beautiful and then headed in to the mountains on smaller and smaller roads as Google tried to navigate us by the most direct route, not understanding that the goat track we were on meant we were doing 10kmh instead of the longer main road at 90kmh. It was beautiful countryside though, amazingly green and pretty with almost no other vehicles, surprisingly and we were in no hurry!
We stopped at a viewpoint after maybe 90 minutes, overlooking the town of Bosa, overlooked by the Castle of Serravalle, our next destination to visit. It looked a very photogenic place with painted houses, a medieval bridge and castle on the hill.
After plugging the phone back in the sat nav switched from driving to walking mode so after crossing said medieval bridge we were directed along a rutted path and then to a metalled road up the hillside to the castle. There was no obvious parking so we dumped the car as out of the way as we could and had a quick scoot around the place.
The castle is thirteenth century and is most famous for the fourteenth century frescoes in the church of Our Lady de Sos Regnos Altos. the Castle of Serravalle has a complete circuit of outer walls and towers that you can climb but the keep and interior buildings are now gone.This was the first place with obvious tourists there and there were a couple of tour groups as well as various individuals. Hardly crowded but busier than we are used to! We were probably in the castle for 15 minutes and then got back to the car, drove down the hill following the proper instructions and passed a large car park on a proper road. Ah well.
Serravalle Castle Photo Gallery
History
The history below is an extract from the excellent page on the castle, here.
According to research the castle was built in various stages and underwent several modifications before being eventually abandoned. The first stage saw the construction of a tower and the northern walls in the 12th century. It was only in the 14th century that the main tower – designed by architect Capula (the same who designed the Elephant and San Pancrazio Towers of Cagliari) – was built. Back then, this had three different floors. From there, the newer walls around the castle were built, as well as the seven square towers.
It was when the Aragonese took power in this part of Sardinia that a new pentagonal tower was built, together with the Nostra Signora de Sos Regnos Altos, which dates back to the 14th century and was located within the walls and decorated with beautiful frescoes which are still partially visible and represent the lives of saint and martyrs such as St. Lawrence and St. Christopher.
References
The official castle website is here.
The history above is copied from the historic European Castles site here.
There is more useful information on this castle site here.