Sardinia · Sassari
Santa Teresa Gallura
The northernmost town in Sardinia, founded in 1808 on a Turin-style grid above the Strait of Bonifacio and 11 kilometers from Corsica.
Known for
BOCCHE DI BONIFACIO
The 11-kilometer strait between Sardinia and Corsica, scattered with reefs and known to sailors for strong currents and traffic.
CAPO TESTA
Granite peninsula weathered into round boulders, Roman quarry site for the columns of the Pantheon and several Constantinople churches.
SAVOY GRID
Founded 1808 by Vittorio Emanuele I and laid out on a regular Turin-style grid, the only Savoy-planned town on the Sardinian coast.
When to visit
Best · May–Oct
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
The festa: San Vittorio Martire, Santa Teresa d'Avila, Sant'Isidoro Agricoltore, 14 October
Why come
Santa Teresa Gallura sits on the northern tip of Sardinia, facing the Strait of Bonifacio. Corsica is 11 kilometers away across the water, the closest point between the two islands. The town was founded on August 12, 1808 by King Vittorio Emanuele I of Savoy and named for his wife Maria Teresa of Austria-Este, built over the older settlement of Longonsardo and laid out on a regular grid borrowed from Turin.
Before the Savoy refoundation, Philip II of Spain had already raised the Torre di Longonsardo on the headland in the 1570s, one of the coastal towers built to watch for North African raiders. Capo Testa, the granite peninsula west of town, is a Hercynian outcrop weathered into round boulders and arches, with a lighthouse at its tip and the Cala di l'Ea wind-carved cove on its eastern shore. Rena Bianca, the town beach, has held the Bandiera Blu since 1987.
The Sunday letter
We haven’t written Santa Teresa Gallura’s letter yet.
One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.
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What to see
Torre di Longonsardo
Late 16th-century Spanish coastal watchtower built under Philip II, the headland landmark above the town and a free viewpoint.
Spiaggia Rena Bianca
Town beach of white sand and shallow turquoise water, Bandiera Blu holder since 1987, a short walk from the central piazza.
Capo Testa
Granite peninsula west of town shaped by erosion into round boulders, arches and natural pools, with a working lighthouse at the western tip.
Valle della Luna
Sheltered granite cove on Capo Testa with rock formations and shallow pools, accessible by footpath from the parking area.
Piazza Vittorio Emanuele I
Main square at the heart of the Savoy grid plan, named for the founder king and ringed by 19th-century low buildings.
The slow-trip planner
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We recommend
Where to eat and stay
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to — a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
Da ThomasRistorante
Da Thomas has two Gambero Rosso forks (82/100) to its name.
Millo RistoranteRistorante
Millo Ristorante carries a spot in the Michelin Guide.
Living here
- Population 5,025
- Off the beaten pathi
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Nearest airport Sardinia, 4 h 30 min drive
- Regional capital Cagliari, 4 h 17 min drive
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources
Recognised as
The numbers
- Elevation: 44 m
- Population: 5,025
- Surface area: 102.29 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
Close by
More towns near Santa Teresa Gallura
Palau
Province: Sassari
The Gallura port that ferries to La Maddalena, with a weather-shaped granite bear on the headland that gave the town its emblem.
Aggius
Province: Sassari
A Gallura granite village at 514 meters under the Monti di Aggius, with the largest ethnographic museum in Sardegna and three centuries of bandit history.
Badesi
Province: Sassari
A Gallura commune founded by shepherding families in the 1700s, with eight kilometers of dunes between Isola Rossa and the Coghinas river.
Tempio Pausania
Province: Sassari
The granite capital of Gallura at the foot of Monte Limbara, known for cork, Vermentino DOCG and the largest Carnival in northern Sardinia.
Sedini
Province: Sassari
Sardinia's most spectacular Domus de Janas — a 1,245-resident Anglona borgo with a prehistoric rock-cut tomb complex carved into a giant limestone outcrop inside the village itself, later reused as a Romanesque church and now a small museum, anchoring a Borgo Autentico-marked centro in the inland Sassari province.
🟦 Bandiera Blu
More Bandiera Blu towns in Sardinia
Castelsardo
Province: Sassari
A Doria sea fortress at 114 meters above the Gulf of Asinara, Genoese from 1100, Aragonese from 1448, Savoyard from the 1700s.
La Maddalena
Province: Sassari
The only inhabited town of a sixty-island granite archipelago between Sardinia and Corsica, and the place Giuseppe Garibaldi chose to die.
Oristano
Province: Oristano
The old capital of the Giudicato di Arborea, city of Eleonora and the Carta de Logu, host of Sa Sartiglia equestrian joust at Carnival.
Tortolì
Province: Nuoro
Co-capital of Ogliastra on the central-east coast, paired with the port of Arbatax and its red porphyry cliffs.