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Posada (population 2250) is located about 25 miles south of Olbia on the east coast of Sardinia. It has a bit of history to it; references to it as a town have dated it back to the 9th century BC. The most distinctive feature is obviously the Castello della Fava located atop the central hill. The castle was built during the 12th and 13th centuries AD. The name is translated as "The Castle of the Bean." According to legend, it received this sobriquet following it's occupants' resistance to one of the perennial assaults by barbarians from Europe.  According to the legend, the garrison was under siege and the defenders were rapidly running out of provisions. A carrier pigeon was force-fed the last supply of fava beans and released with a message assuring the allies of the city's ability to weather the siege with a bountiful larder. The barbarians downed the pigeon with an arrow and read the message (as the defenders had assumed they would). They also sliced open the pigeon and found the fava beans. The attackers assumed that the message must be true if the defenders were so flush that they could afford to feed their carrier pigeons on fresh fava beans (a delicacy then as now). Accordingly, the attacking army withdrew to it's ships and left to search out and lay siege to more vulnerable cities. 

 

 

 

 Above are two randomly picked houses which I photographed because of their attractiveness. Not everyone in the town lives quite this well.

 

 

The main thoroughfare through the town wends it's way up the hill to within a few hundred feet of the base of the castle and then has some thrilling hairpin curves down the other side. At it's widest, the street can accommodate two very small Italian cars with at least a quarter inch of space left between them. The picture left above shows one of the more exciting obstacles on this course. From the highest point of the street, we began the climb. Above right is Christa and Angelika going up the steps to Angelika's "house" which is cut into the rock of the hillside. The doorway between them is the entrance.

 

 

 

So, after climbing several hundred feet up the hill, we've arrived at the top of Castello della Fava. The views from up here make obvious it's defensive value in earlier days. It becomes even more obvious when I climb a couple of hundred feet higher up a rickety spiral staircase in the tower and take the pictures below.

 

 

To the northeast we can see the surrounding plain and the Rio Posada winding it's way to the sea in the background.

 

 

 

To the southeast, we see the lagoons and the towns of San Giovanni and La Caletta.

 

 

 

To the west we see Monti di Albo and have a view of the valley leading to Sinascola and the Baronie region.

 

 

 

And this is where you find the people in the summer.  This was particularly true in 1999 when our trip coincided with a record-breaking European heat wave.

 


 

 

Some of the photo pages have Sardinian MIDI music clips attached. This music is used with the generous permission of the composer Mr. Carlo Maccioni of Cagliari, Sardinia.  Carlo has an award-winning web site with pictures and information about his native Sardinia. To access his web site, click anywhere on this note. My thanks to him for allowing me the use of the MIDI clips.

 

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