After 1770, something changed in the air of the archipelago. Seasonal huts gave way to houses with solid foundations. Roads traced at a walking pace became paths traveled every day. And the few dozen souls living on the island in 1767 became hundreds of people with first names, last names, trades, and dreams.
Between 1790 and 1860, La Maddalena was not yet a city in the modern sense. But it had become something more important: a shared home.
Corsican Fishermen: Roots Beyond the Sea
The Maddalenian community was born from a geographical and human encounter: on one side, the Corsican fishermen from Alta Rocca, Bonifacio, Porto-Vecchio, and Sartène, who crossed the Straits for tuna fishing; on the other, the Gallurese shepherds who brought their flocks to the island in winter.
The Corsicans arrived first as seasonal visitors. Then, slowly, they began to stay. They brought with them the Gallurese dialect with Corsican inflections, fishing techniques passed down from father to son, and recipes based on fish and myrtle. And they brought something even more important: the tradition of the family home.
In Corsican communities, a house was not an asset to be sold to the highest bidder. It was a legacy. A heritage that passed from generation to generation, guarded with pride and care. When the Corsican fishermen built the first permanent dwellings in the village—those we still see today in the historic center with dry-stone walls and narrow windows—they didn’t do it thinking of an investment. They did it thinking of their children, and their children’s children.
That way of thinking—the house as a legacy, not as a commodity—has left a profound mark on the real estate DNA of La Maddalena. Even today, many Maddalenian families live in the same houses for three, four, or five generations. And this emotional bond with the place, this shared root, is what has protected the island from wild speculation and has kept the social fabric alive even during periods of greatest tourism pressure.
Sardinian Sailors: The Work that Builds Community
In parallel with the Corsican fishermen, Sardinian sailors arrived. The island’s strategic position at the Straits of Bonifacio soon made it a reference point for the Royal Sardinian Navy. In 1793, during the French attack led by Napoleon Bonaparte, La Maddalena resisted thanks to the courage of Domenico Millelire, son of Pietro, the patriarch who had welcomed the House of Savoy in 1767.
That battle was not just a military event: it was a collective founding rite. For the first time, islanders, soldiers, and sailors fought together to defend their home. And after that victory, no one doubted anymore that La Maddalena belonged to them.
With the Navy came the first stable jobs on the island. Sailors needed housing near the port. Their families needed schools, shops, and meeting places. Thus, the first working-class neighborhoods were born—simple, functional, built with the stones of the island and the wood from decommissioned ships.
Every house built in those years was not just a shelter. It was an act of faith in the future. It said: “Here is work. Here is security. Here is where I want to raise my family.”
The First “Civil” Transactions: When Value Became Shared
Before 1800, real estate transactions in La Maddalena were rare and informal. A plot of land was “passed” from one family member to another with a handshake. A house was built where there was space, without much formality.
But between 1800 and 1860, something changed. With the increase in population and the arrival of new families, the need for shared rules arose. Who could build where? Who had rights to that stretch of coast? Who could graze sheep on that land?
Thus, the first forms of civil property were born—no longer just military assignments or informal donations, but actual agreements between private individuals. Since no notaries existed on the island yet, these transactions took place before trusted witnesses: the parish priest, the Navy commander, the village head. And they were recorded on sheets of paper kept in the homes themselves, some of which are still held by Maddalenian families today.
The value of these lands was still symbolic compared to today’s standards. A lot in the historic center might be worth a few lire, the equivalent of a fishing boat or a few months of work. But the true value was not in the price: it was in the certainty. The certainty that that piece of land would remain yours, and your children’s, for generations.
The First Roads: When the Territory Became Connected
Until 1800, the “roads” of La Maddalena were paths traced by the daily passage of people and animals. There was no urban planning; houses were built where there was space, and streets formed naturally between one dwelling and another.
But with the growth of the population, the need to connect arose. The port had to be reachable from the church. The church had to be reachable from the fishermen’s houses. And the fishermen’s houses had to be connected to each other.
Thus were born the first paved streets—simple, narrow, made of local stones—which still characterize the historic center today. Via Garibaldi, Via Vittorio Emanuele, Via Carlo Felice: these streets were not designed by an urban planner. They were built by the community, stone by stone, to meet a shared need.
And every road traced increased the value of the surrounding land. Because an accessible piece of land is worth more than an isolated one. A house near the main road is worth more than a house hidden among the rocks. This simple truth—that connectivity creates value—is still one of the fundamental principles of the real estate market today.
The Horizon Widens: The First Traces of Granite
While fishermen and sailors were building the village around the port, something important was happening in the island’s inland areas. As early as the end of the 18th century, some islanders had begun extracting pink granite from the natural quarries scattered across the archipelago.
In the beginning, it was a marginal activity: a few blocks of stone extracted to build a house, a dry-stone wall, or a fountain. But anyone observing closely could already glimpse the potential of that pink rock—durable and beautiful.
Between 1830 and 1860, the first shipments of Maddalenian granite began to leave the island, headed toward Sardinia, Corsica, and then the mainland. And with those shipments, the first true extractive wealth arrived on the island.
But this is a story that deserves an episode all its own. Because granite—and especially the famous Cava Francese—was not just an economic resource. It was an engine of growth that shaped the territory, created new neighborhoods, and forever transformed the face of La Maddalena.
We will discover it in the next episode.
James Patrick Murphy Founder, Immobiliare Murphy
