This portal, with an archivolt in square stones and furnished with a dovecote with a single-pitched roof, leads to a courtyard house which, like others in the hamlet, be they small or large, is part of the oldest building fabric of Simala.
The door was made of wooden planks and the right side has a wicket door, embellished with a cornice, for pedestrian access. The left side of the door, although lacking a wicket door, maintains the symmetry and displays an identical cornice. Door handles were once the latch type and always ornamental, in the shape of a cockerel, a mouse or a beak, just as the door knockers took on various forms, shaped like a lion’s or sphinx’s head, a ring or a bracelet. They once proclaimed the visits of guests or strangers but today, since their function has been superseded, they have been replaced with modern bells.
The crossroads is overlooked by the old dairy built in 1940 and the stately home that, from 1880, had accommodated the Royal Carabinieri Mounted Command Station, the final closure of which came on the 17th of April 1963. The site was selected for its favourable position, as can be seen from the correspondence between the owner of the house and the prefect of Cagliari who oversaw the negotiations. “It is at a crossroads and is surrounded by a large garden with a fountain of perennial drinking water”.
There are other portals in the adjacent roads, one with a simple, linear shape built in 1880, another with a monumental pedestal and neoclassical stylistic features built in the decade of the nineteen twenties. There is also a portal with an architrave dating from 1940.
