Ubaldo II Visconti is the historical figure which tradition mainly connects with the Palace of Baldu and from which it takes its name: he had his official residence in the Giudicato palace of Civita (the current Olbia), while the castles of Baldu (fig. 1), Balaiana (Luogosanto) and Monteacuto (Berchidda) were his summer residences.

Fig. 1 - Luogosanto, the Palace of Baldu (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).

He was the son of Lamberto Visconti di Eldizio and of Elena de Lacon, the reigning giudicessa of Gallura, the first woman to govern a Sardinian kingdom by birthright.

In 1219 Ubaldo II married Adelasia, the daughter of Giudice Mariano II of Torres, in the Basilica of the Holy Trinity of Saccargia (fig. 2), thus uniting the Giudicato of Gallura to that of Torres.

Fig. 2 - The Holy Trinity of Saccargia: the exterior and the internal wall frescoes in the apse (from http://www.mayacostaparadiso.it/wordpress/?page_id=32; http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Italy/Sardegna/Sassari/Ploaghe/photo1008544.htm).

He came to the throne around 1226, when his father died and in 1236 his wife Adelasia inherited the title of giudicessa of Torres, although still informally.

In 1237, Pope Gregory IX called for formal acts of vassalage by the Giudici: on 3rd March in the palace of Ardara (fig. 3), Adelasia took the oath of allegiance to the Holy See for the Giudicato of Torres and for her other assets in Sardinia, Corsica, Pisa and Massa, formalising the investiture on 8th April 1237. Her husband only signed the act for the Giudicato of Torres, but not for Gallura, confirming the authority of the bishop of Pisa.

Fig. 3 - Fragments of walls of the Giudicato castle of Ardara (behind the palace chapel) and the hypothetical reconstruction (from http://www.comune.ardara.ss.it/?modulo=contenuti&id=80; http://castelliere.blogspot.it/2013/07/il-castello-di-sabato-6-luglio.html).

On 27th January, 1238 in the monastery of San Pietro of Silki (fig. 4), Ubaldo Visconti wrote his testament in which he expressed his will to leave his domain of Gallura and the rights over the Giudicato di Arborea to his cousin Giovanni Visconti. He died the same year and, according to tradition, he was buried in the crypt of the Basilica of Our Lady of Luogosanto, where his mother had already been laid to rest.

Fig. 4 - Sassari, the church of San Pietro di Silki: interior (from https://www.flickr.com/photos/piante_e_fiori_della_sardegna/11293227425).