Cala Gonone

📖 History of Cala Gonone

The area was inhabited long before the present-day village. In the territory of Dorgali, people built many nuraghi, the stone towers of the Bronze Age Nuragic civilisation, and villages such as Serra Orrios and Tiscali, the latter built between the 15th and 8th centuries BC and reoccupied in Roman times. On the coast, about two kilometres south of today's village, there was a Roman and later Byzantine port settlement until the first millennium AD, next to the Nuraghe Mannu, which local historians identify as Sulcalis or Thurcali. After the year 1000 the coast emptied because of malaria, raids by Saracen pirates and general insecurity, and for almost 900 years nobody lived there permanently: it was grazing land and a seasonal anchorage. The modern village began with the church of Nostra Signora di Bonaria in 1878. In the early 20th century a colony of fishermen from the island of Ponza arrived and left their mark on the port. From the 1950s the Grotta del Bue Marino, named after the monk seal that lived there, became the gulf's big attraction and tourism began to grow. In 1985 fishermen from Ponza and businesspeople from Dorgali founded the boat transport consortium that still takes visitors to the coves. In 1993 Cala Goloritzé was declared a natural monument, and since 2007 the waters in front of it have been closed to motorboats. In 2025 The World's 50 Best Beaches named it the best beach in the world, and the tourist pressure forced the municipalities of Dorgali and Baunei to tighten visitor caps, bookings and environmental fees.