In the southern part of the island of Sant’Antioco in the “Turri” area, there is a watchtower which was built under the government of Count Lorenzo Bogino.

In fact, he reorganized the administration of the coastal towers built under the Spanish domination of King Philip II. Already some time before, the citizens of Iglesias, interested in cultivating land on the island of Sant’Antioco, had made a plea to the king of Sardinia, in which they offered their help for the construction of towers on the island.

For this reason, Carlo Emanuele III gave orders to the viceroy Cacherano of Bricherasio to prepare the construction of the two towers already planned on the island. In 1757 the tower designed by the military engineer Vallin was built; it stands on the “su moru” cape, the southern promontory of the island of Sant’Antioco, today called “Turri”.

Turkish flotillas used to anchor in this stretch of sea until the first decades of the nineteenth century. The Tower carried out an important work of sighting and communicating news to the military departments responsible for the defense of the island of Sant’Antioco during the French invasion attempt of 1793 and on the occasion of the last two Tunisian incursions of 1812 and 1815 on the island .

The Canai tower remained active until 1815. In recent times the tower has been used as a tourist residence by a private individual who, for this purpose, has “remodelled” it in a questionable way. Only in 1994 was it finally returned to collective use by the Italia Nostra association which, after obtaining it under concession, carried out a restoration project in collaboration with the Superintendency of Cultural Heritage of Cagliari and the Ministry of the Environment.

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Sant’Antioco , Cala Raia , isolotti La Vacca , Il Vitello , ed in lontananza Il Toro .

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The island of Sant’Antioco (in Sardinian isula ‘e Sàntu Antiògu, in Tabarchino uiza de Sant’Antióccu) is located in the extreme south-west of Sardinia and linked to it by a bridge and an artificial isthmus. In Roman times it was known as Insula Plumbaria. Sant’Antioco is the fourth largest island in the territory of the Italian Republic (108.9 km²), immediately after Elba (Sant’Antioco has almost half the surface area of ​​Elba), and before Pantelleria (83 km²); in sixth place we find the “sister” island of Sant’Antioco, the island of San Pietro. The island is largely of volcanic origin; this is ancient volcanism and has now been inactive for at least 15-20 million years. The coast of the island is mainly rocky. In the western part (towards the open sea), the coast is characterized by vertical or very steep cliff-like walls, with interspersed caves and some inlets, with few but large beaches. The eastern coast, which overlooks Sardinia, has a low and sandy coast which, at the point of the isthmus that connects it to Sardinia itself, gradually takes on a lagoon-like appearance. The southern gulf, south of the isthmus, contains very large sandy beaches, bordered by tombolos and dunes. The interior of the island is hilly with limited altitudes, without any significant waterways. Offshore, towards the south, there are some rocky islets that are uninhabited and difficult to access, the largest of which is the island of Toro. Vegetation of the island of Sant’Antioco The main plant formation is the typical low Mediterranean scrub made up of rockrose (Cistus), mastic (Pistacia lentiscus), strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) and juniper (Juniperus). Among the forms of plant life on the island there are also the dwarf palm (Chamaerops humilis), the only spontaneous European species, and the Cretan date (Phoenix theophrasti). The island is dotted with areas sheltered by small family-run vegetable gardens and vineyards, especially in the most protected (eastern) part; the most widely cultivated fruit trees are the vine (Vitis vinifera) with different varieties, the fig and the prickly pear.

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