To get to the Castle of Quirra, you'll have to take a stretch of the 'old' SS 125, the Sardinian Orientale so popular with bikers, and you'll think that 'the journey is as good as the destination'. Then you'll walk for twenty minutes along an arduous path until you reach its mighty walls besieged by wildlife. Finally, from up there, the view of Cala Murtas and Porto Corallo on one side and the Ogliastra Tacchi on the other, will remain etched in your memory for a long time.

Today, the Salto di Quirra testing range is part of the municipality of Villaputzu, a transitional territory between Sarrabus and Ogliastra. In the 12th century, when the judges of Cagliari built the castle on the hill of Cudias, it marked the border with the judicature of Gallura. The manor then passed to the Pisans and finally to the Crown of Aragon, which awarded it to the powerful Carroz family as compensation for their support during the wars of expansion. The castle of Cagliari and other fiefdoms in southern Sardinia also went to the Valencian nobles.