The great Pisan tower known as the Elephant Tower was designed by architect Giovanni Capula in the early 14th century and completed in 1307.
The restoration carried out in 1906, with the release of the walled side in the Aragonese period, allowed the restoration of its original condition.
Almost identical to the tower of San Pancrazio, it has retained until today its function as the entrance to the castle.
It presents four floors on wooden mezzanines open, according to the Pisan model, toward the interior of the Castle, offering instead on the outside of the city three massive sides in white Bonaria limestone, only pierced by the very thin openings of the loopholes.
The gate was defended by numerous barricades, three strong gates and two portcullises, while, crowning the building, a series of corbels supported a wooden scaffolding for defense from above.
On the south facade, a few meters from the pavement, is the elephant sculpture, perhaps coeval with the tower.
Well-preserved, at various elevations, are the coats of arms of the Pisan castellans of Cagliari, and, next to the entrance, the epigraph in memory of the workmen and the craftsman Giovanni Capula “never in his works found incapable” is still legible.
