Giudicato of Logudoro

The Judicate of Logudoro, also called the Judicate of Torres, was one of the four medieval kingdoms, or giudicati, into which Sardinia was divided. It occupied the northwest of the island from the eleventh century until 1259, bordering Gallura, Arborea and Cagliari. Its original capital was Porto Torres, an ancient port exposed to Arab raids; the seat of the judges later moved to Ardara and then Sassari. Logudoro was the largest and earliest of the giudicati and was divided into twenty curatoriae governed by curatores. It emerged as Byzantine authority in Sardinia weakened in the ninth century, when local iudices began to govern autonomously; by 1073 the giudicati were de facto independent. The judgeship is first clearly documented under Barisone I, who ruled from about 1038 to 1073 and brought Western monasticism to the island with support from Montecassino and the papacy. The kingdom ended in 1259 when Queen Adelasia died without an heir. Genoese families and the Judicate of Arborea then contested the region, while Sassari became an autonomous city-state.