Tancas Abertas

Perhaps it was the incursions of the Moors on the coasts of Sardinia that pushed the judges of Torres towards a safer location, inland, in the heart of their domains. And so, in the XI century, Ardara became the capital.

The oldest sources tell of the presence of a Palacium, a structure not yet fortified that gradually would have enjoyed expansions for defensive purposes.

With the dissolution of the judicature, during the dominion of the Doria, the Palace became a proper castle surrounded by powerful walls and towers.

The decline of the premises is reported by the historian Fara already at the end of the ‘500s. The chronicles of the eighteenth century speak of it as a den of bandits.

According to tradition, it was used as a quarry for stone by the local inhabitants, who would have destroyed it to build their own homes.

The canon Giovanni Spano instead reports that the demolition was intended to build in its place the current municipal house. Precisely thanks to Spano's intervention today a portion of the tower remains, about 12 meters high.