Pedres Castle symbolizes and represents for Olbia, along with the Romanesque-Pisan church of San Simplicio, the height of the Judicial period. Analysis of the architecture and building techniques suggests dating the complex to the middle of the 13th century, attributing its commissioning to the Visconti, the powerful family of Pisa that ruled the fortunes of the Gallurese giudicato for almost the entire century.
It can be prudently assumed that the name of the fortress was derived from the presence of the nearby Villa Petresa, or Petrosa, the small medieval population nucleus that became extinct with the great economic and demographic crisis of the 14th-15th centuries.
The fortified complex is built on a modest but steep rocky emergence 89 m high, from which it overlooks the southern part of the Olbia basin with control of the ancient city and its port call.
