Gallura is the North Eastern region of the island included in the territory of Olbia-Tempio Pausania.

There are several credible hypothesis concerning the origin of the name of Gallura and there is still no agreement. Among them, one attributes its name to the Gauls, one of the colonising populations, but there is no real historical documentation; another to the Visconti, the Pisan noblemen who ruled the area during the Middle Ages, on the basis that a rooster is depicted on their heraldic emblem.

The Gallura landscape is characteristic: the actions of wind, rain and sea have over time forged its granitic rocks: the many isolated and rounded blocks which are present everywhere in the landscape, with large tafone-shaped hollow caves which, often, recall anthropomorphic, animal or plant figures, a characteristic which is often also recalled in its place names.

Among the many known rock figures, there is the Mushroom Rock of Arzachena (fig. 1).

Fig. 1 - Arzachena, Monti Incappidatu (from http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/index.php?xsl=626&s=17&v=9&c=4461&id=527919).

The sea and wind erosion helped give specific outlines to the coast of Gallura: in fact, the coastline is very rugged and consists of a succession of basins and creeks. The sea takes on characteristic colours and shades which help to create a landscape of exceptional beauty (fig. 2).

Fig. 2 - Overview of the Gulf of Arzachena (from http://www.comunearzachena.gov.it/index.php/gallerie-fotografiche3/category/14-fotografie-aeree).

Gallura has a vast and rich natural heritage not only in its coastal areas, but also in its inland ones, where the mountains put forward their rich woodland (fig. 3).

Fig. 3 - Holm oak of Mount Limbara (from http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/index.php?xsl=615&s=17&v=9&c=4461&id=527775)

The scattered rural settlements of "stazzi (farm houses)" are one of the main features of Gallura; these were originally built in local granite by shepherds who had fled nearby Corsica because of political reasons or because of family feuds, between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

This type of construction of peasant-shepherd dwelling had a rather simple structure, a generally rectangular plan, with thick walls built with local stone, granite, and a double-pitched roofing which sometimes rested on rudimentary juniper trusses (fig. 4).

Fig. 4 - Stazzo (farmhouse) of Mount Limbara (from http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/index.php?xsl=626&s=17&v=9&c=4461&id=527919).