Urban Planning And New Towns In Medieval Sardinia 523
instance, in 1250 the vicar of the giudicessa Adelasia Torres granted permis-
sion to the city of Marseilles, which was interested in harvesting coral, to
build a fondaco at the river port of Bosa.53 In the “Court Intro” area, traces
constructed by the hundred in medieval Mediterranean ports. Fondaci are document-
ed only sporadically, as early as the twelfth century. See Hans Conrad Peyer, Von der
Gastfreundschaft zum Gasthaus. Studien zur Gastlichkeit im Mittelalter (Hannover, 1987);
Ennio Concina, Fondaci: Architettura, arte, e mercatura tra Levante, Venezia, e Alemagna
(Venice, 1997); Marco Cadinu, “Il recupero dei foundouk urbani e le trasformazioni in
atto tra Marrakech e le città del meridione europeo,” in Achenza et al., Houses and Cities
(2006), pp. 111–116.
53 Merchants from Marseilles were not the first to use the area; the Genoese presence was
confirmed in 1238; see Corrado Zedda, “Il commercio del corallo e i contratti d’ingaggio dei
corallieri ad Alghero nel XV secolo,” Estudis Històrics i Documents dels Arxius de Protocols
19 (2001), pp. 85–105; Foiso Fois, “Il castello di Serravalle di Bosa,” Archivio Storico Sardo 27
(1961), pp. 443–456; Cadinu, Urbanistica medievale, pp. 90–91.
Figure 19.9 The linear village (via Dritta) of Villamassargia (Iglesias), a thirteenth-century
settlement. “Casalini” were located nearby at the end of the thirteenth century; on
the bottom, the Romanesque San Ranieri church ( from Cadinu, 2009).