Giudicato of Gallura

The Judicate of Gallura was one of the four independent judicates of medieval Sardinia, occupying the north-east of the island with its main city at Olbia. Its rulers bore the title iudex, or judge, and the territory was divided into ten curatoriae. Gallura emerged from the Byzantine province of Sardinia after the Arab conquest of Sicily in 827 cut the island off from regular imperial contact; local dignitaries became hereditary rulers by the eleventh century, and the first judges appear in the historical record late in that century. The judicate was closely tied to Pisa and generally supported the Pisan archbishop and republic against Genoa and the other Sardinian states. In 1207 the Visconti family took power, and in 1287 Pisa annexed Gallura after expelling the last Visconti judge; Pisa held the region until the Aragonese conquest of 1323-1324. Its institutions left a lasting mark on the rural districts of northern Sardinia.