Caccuri castle was built over Byzantine fortress dating to the 6th century. It was restored several times. In the early 1800s the castle became a comfortable noble residence, equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, including hot running water and central heating. The restoration work was followed by the architect Adolfo Mastrigli who planned the construction of the cylindrical tower that dominates the castle and which has become, over the years, the symbol of Caccuri.
The most visible element is the only tower, called Torre Mastrigli, which is the town's symbol. Currently a great part of the castle is in a state of decay. The feudal chapel houses Neapolitan school artworks.
Inside the Castle there is the Palatine Chapel which still retains the form conferred by the renovation works sponsored by the Cavalcanti family and carried out between 1669 and 1705. Inside there are important pictorial works such as “La Maddalena Penitente” by the great painter Neapolitan Domenico Gargiulo and “The Miracles of St. Thomas Aquinas“, a canvas created by the Bolognese painter Domenico Maria Muratori which is the model of the altarpiece of a similar subject preserved in Rome in the Church of the Holy Spirit of the Neapolitans.
References:Monte d"Accoddi is a Neolithic archaeological site in northern Sardinia, located in the territory of Sassari. The site consists of a massive raised stone platform thought to have been an altar. It was constructed by the Ozieri culture or earlier, with the oldest parts dated to around 4,000–3,650 BC.
The site was discovered in 1954 in a field owned by the Segni family. No chambers or entrances to the mound have been found, leading to the presumption it was an altar, a temple or a step pyramid. It may have also served an observational function, as its square plan is coordinated with the cardinal points of the compass.
The initial Ozieri structure was abandoned or destroyed around 3000 BC, with traces of fire found in the archeological evidence. Around 2800 BC the remains of the original structure were completely covered with a layered mixture of earth and stone, and large blocks of limestone were then applied to establish a second platform, truncated by a step pyramid (36 m × 29 m, about 10 m in height), accessible by means of a second ramp, 42 m long, built over the older one. This second temple resembles contemporary Mesopotamian ziggurats, and is attributed to the Abealzu-Filigosa culture.
Archeological excavations from the chalcolithic Abealzu-Filigosa layers indicate the Monte d"Accoddi was used for animal sacrifice, with the remains of sheep, cattle, and swine recovered in near equal proportions. It is among the earliest known sacrificial sites in Western Europe.
The site appears to have been abandoned again around 1800 BC, at the onset of the Nuragic age.
The monument was partially reconstructed during the 1980s. It is open to the public and accessible by the old route of SS131 highway, near the hamlet of Ottava. It is 14,9 km from Sassari and 45 km from Alghero. There is no public transportation to the site. The opening times vary throughout the year.