Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 8 hours ago
The current territory of Loiri Porto San Paolo has been inhabited since ancient times. Already in the Middle Ages there were some communities, as evidenced by the church in the Santa Giusta area, which was an important place of worship for the Giudicato of Gallura. In the feudal era, during the Aragonese and Spanish domination, the territory was part of a large fiefdom called the encontrada of Gallura, of which it constituted the extreme south-eastern offshoot. It was classified as "salto". This term referred to some wild and wooded areas within a fiefdom, territories generally used for gathering wood and for grazing pigs (due to the presence of numerous acorn-bearing trees), or periodically rented to transhumant shepherds. Even with the disbandment of the fiefdoms and the formation of modern municipalities around the mid-nineteenth century, the area continued to be administered by the municipality of Tempio Pausania, managing to establish itself as an autonomous municipality only in 1979. The coastal area, where Porto San Paolo is now located, was once sparsely populated and for several centuries considered unsafe due to malaria and the frequentation of Barbary ships. The latter lasted in Sardinia until the early nineteenth century, while malaria could be eradicated from the island only in the years following the Second World War. The coastal area of Porto San Paolo was, like much of the Gallura coast, a site of trafficking and smuggling until the early twentieth century. Porto San Paolo was also frequented by fishermen, often coming from the island of Ponza. In recent decades, however, the same coastal area has enjoyed particular success as a holiday resort, which has led to particularly intense urban development.
The current territory of Loiri Porto San Paolo has been inhabited since ancient times. Already in the Middle Ages there were some communities, as evidenced by the church in the Santa Giusta area, which was an important place of worship for the Giudicato of Gallura. In the feudal era, during the Aragonese and Spanish domination, the territory was part of a large fiefdom called the encontrada of Gallura, of which it constituted the extreme south-eastern offshoot. It was classified as "salto". This term referred to some wild and wooded areas within a fiefdom, territories generally used for gathering wood and for grazing pigs (due to the presence of numerous acorn-bearing trees), or periodically rented to transhumant shepherds. Even with the disbandment of the fiefdoms and the formation of modern municipalities around the mid-nineteenth century, the area continued to be administered by the municipality of Tempio Pausania, managing to establish itself as an autonomous municipality only in 1979. The coastal area, where Porto San Paolo is now located, was once sparsely populated and for several centuries considered unsafe due to malaria and the frequentation of Barbary ships. The latter lasted in Sardinia until the early nineteenth century, while malaria could be eradicated from the island only in the years following the Second World War. The coastal area of Porto San Paolo was, like much of the Gallura coast, a site of trafficking and smuggling until the early twentieth century. Porto San Paolo was also frequented by fishermen, often coming from the island of Ponza. In recent decades, however, the same coastal area has enjoyed particular success as a holiday resort, which has led to particularly intense urban development.
