Aragonese. After a period of Spanish rule, it became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Torres was separated from the Commune of Sassari in 1842. At the time, the area which had been built around the basilica of Saint Gavino joined the fishermen's community near the port to form the new Porto Torres. On 10 May 1942, Benito Mussolini visited the town. On Palm Sunday, 18 April 1943, the city was bombed by the Allies. Geography Porto Torres is on the north-west coast of Sardinia. The area of the municipality is almost 10,200 hectares and is subdivided into two parts, almost equal in size. One part includes the city, the industrial area, and the Roman ruins; the other consists of two islands, Asinara and the smaller Isola Piana. Since 1997, this part of the municipality is the Asinara National Park. The morphology of "city part" is flat; the area of Porto Torres and the rest of north-west Sardinia is characterized by a Nurra plain, with some hill formations in the middle of it. Part of this hill formation is in the municipality of Porto Torres, the highest elevation being Monte Alvaro, rising to a height of 342 m above sea level. The communal territory is crossed by two rivers, Rio Mannu and Fiume Santo. The first flows along the edge of Porto Torres to the west, while the second runs near the city and was used as a navigable river as early as the days of ancient Rome. Demographics Until the 1960s, the town was considered to be more or less like a large village. After that, thanks to industrialization, the population increased rapidly until the 1980s, when the local petrochemical industry managed by the "SIR – Società Italiana Resine" owned by Angelo Rovelli entered into a deep financial crisis. Foreign residents In Porto Torres in 2019 there were 599 foreign residents, many of them from Africa and eastern Europe. The main nationalities recorded were: Nigeria: 61 Romania: 56 Serbia: 45 Senegal: 34 Poland: 32 Ghana: 29 Somalia: 24 Ivory Coast: 22 China: 20 Mali: 17 Other: 159 Economy Tourism Starting in 2008, tourism has become a very important activity for the economy of the city. The town have several attractions, both natural and anthropic. The main attraction is the Asinara National Park. The Aragonese seaport tower is considered the symbol of the city and because of this it is