Calasetta

The Town

The centre of Calasetta is placed on a hill that go down to the harbour, giving to the town is shaped like a polygon. The center seen from above suggests an idea of extreme severity for the regularity and the order of its straight streets which intersect making a orthogonal grid.

The area of Calasetta offers many beaches of breathtaking beauty. The coast of Calasetta is high and rocky in the west and low and sandy in the northeast. The coastline suffered three major cracks that correspond to three beautiful beaches: “Spiaggia Grande”, “Salina” and “Sottotorre”. Of Incomparably beautiful is the presence of a bastion of rocks in the west that extends up to 10 m in depth that has contributed to the creation of caves and sharp rocks of great effect. One of the most striking examples of the work of the sea is certainly  ‘Il nido dei passeri”, pair of rocks rising from the water so named for the many birds that take refuge there.

Calasetta is very famous for its iconic urban tower which occurs in many pictures of the town.

Not least is the typical cuisine of Calasetta. Every dish is a mixture of genres and tastes coming from Liguria that clash with African, Sicilian and Sardinian ones. The typical dishes of Calasetta offer recipes characterized by a riot of fresh tuna, chickpea porridge and fish soup.

Visiting Calasetta you cannot do without to see the museum of contemporary arts “Ermanno Leinardi”, which houses a vast collection of works by contemporary painters.

The torre sabauda

The Tower, that is located in the center of Calasetta, dates back to 1756. It was built to provide protection against attacks from the sea and today is used for cultural and educational purposes and to host an important collection of Phoenician and Punic artefacts. From the tower there’s a sight that range within a radius of 20 km, to monitor the entire stretch of sea and the coast between the islands of Sant’Antioco and San Pietro and the mainland. The massive tower of Calasetta has the classical shape of a truncated cone with a base diameter of over 16 meters and a ‘height of 11 meters on the terrace. It consists of two overlapping rooms, the one below – that contains the old tank – has been brought to light in recent times. The external staircase, of the modern age, leading to the entrance located at 4 meters. A circular room of 10 meters in diameter, covered with a domed ceiling supported by a pillar. The space is divided into several rooms by some partitions already plant, which can be recognized accommodation of alcade and soldiers. All the gun holes and the hatch of the chamber are arranged in a symmetrical manner as the corners of a regular hexagon. From the open staircase on the right of the hatch and cut into the thickness of the wall, you get to the pavement in arms, today unrecognizable after various interventions that have transformed merloni, gunboats and watchtowers. Of the Ancient building remains part of the curb in stone.

The Museum

In the beautiful city of Calasetta, in the island of Sant’Antioco you can find the MACC, Museum of Contemporary Art. The exhibition halls on the first floor is dedicated to the abstract and constructivist art, while in the gallery on the side a series of large-format works exposed 6 m above the ground. The collection, consisting of Ermanno Leinardi (1933-2006), an important Sardinian artist co-founder in 1966 (with Italo Utzeri, Ugo Ugo and Tonino Casula) Group Transactional reflected most of the artistic trends that developed in Europe in the ’60s -’ 70 of the twentieth century.