After the union of Italy, the superintendence of the Italian prisons in Rome found itself facing the issue connected to the use, socially useful and economically sustainable, of the prisoners; in the end it was decided to utilize them for the redevelopment of abandoned territories. Following this decision, it took shape the miraculous intervention of the sinners who were sentenced to forced labor in the largest agricultural penal colony of Italy, in Castiadas (south-east coast of Sardinia), to reclaim a territory of 6300 hectares uninhabited for 350 years, unhealthy, swampy and malarial.
On 11 August 1875 the General Inspector of the prisons of Italy, Eugenio Cicognani, with a handful of men and a dozen of prisoners disembarked on the Cala Sinzias' beach in Castiadas. From that day and for 80 years, the condemned hardly worked to redeem their sins by managing to reclaim the entire area and transforming it into one of the most fascinating places in Sardinia, while malaria was inexorably decimating them.
A still unknown story that must teach us to appreciate the sacrifice of the many men, such as prisoners, guards and employee, who have worked and offered their lives to give us these precious lands as we know them today; an earthly paradise rich of values, beauties, traditions and culture. The story is told by intercalating the landscapes and beauties as they are today with the historical reconstructions developed from the description of all the documents and finds available of that period; fades that take us back in the time, animations that revive images of the past, a sad and impactful story told in human and poetic way.