Cala Spalmatore - La Maddalena

On the north-eastern shore of La Maddalena, Cala Spalmatore cuts inland like a small fjord, sheltered from the mistral and backed by a little coastal pond. Fishermen once tarred their hulls here; the long jetty and sheltered inlet still recall its maritime past.

Why it matters

The inlet’s shape has long defined Spalmatore. The deep, narrow inlet behaves like a natural harbour, which is why fishermen worked here for centuries and why the beach beside it has become one of the island's most visited. The beach is about seventy metres long and twenty-five wide. Its sheltered inlet, jetty and pond give the small cove a distinctive character. The cove brings the archipelago’s seafaring past into view beside its coastal landscape.

What to notice

The sand has pinkish grains streaked with yellow and black mica and quartz. The sandy seabed slopes gently, and the sheltered water remains clear near the inlet’s rock walls. Behind the beach, a small pond hosts many animal species — birds give it away at dawn and dusk. The long jetty recalls the cove’s working history and the tar applied to boats, associated with its name and the verb spalmare, to smear. Above the coast, the old Guardia del Turco lookout frames views of La Maddalena on one side and Caprera on the other.

Context and history

The cove’s name preserves its trade: fishermen used the inlet to beach and careen their boats, spreading hot pitch over the planking; the same qualities — deep sheltered water, a firm approach, a spine of rock to leeward — made the jetty a working mooring rather than a decoration. La Maddalena developed as a settlement in the eighteenth century and later served as a naval base. The causeway linking it to Caprera forms another part of the archipelago’s maritime landscape. The roughly six-hundred-metre causeway connected the two islands and reshaped the movement of people along this coast. The cove forms part of the La Maddalena archipelago’s national-park landscape.