As already mentioned here, Porto Cervo is the jewel of the Costa Smeralda in Sardinia. This small village is built stone by stone in 1962 and has absolutely nothing to do with the spontaneous, typical Italian style of construction. Quite the opposite. Porto Cervo is envisioned by the Aga Khan and designed as a dream village, intended for the ultra-wealthy of the time.
Renowned architects and urban planners Jacques Couëlle, Luigi Vietti, and Michele Busiri Vici lay the foundations of the village’s historic core in just a few years, designing the iconic hotels Cala di Volpe, Romazzino, Pitrizza, and Luci de la Muntagna, as well as the remarkable Stella Maris church.
As if the Aga Khan wants to stress that this place belongs more to the world of dreams than to reality, he calls on Jacques Couëlle – far from a conventional architect – a self-taught scenographer whose practice, blending architecture and sculpture, shares the organic principles of Antonio Gaudí.
Luigi Vietti, for his part, creates from scratch an architectural language that soon becomes the very essence of the pan-Mediterranean style – rustic-chic, showcasing raw, local, and natural materials. Around the village, white and pink villas with arches and wooden roofs are built, in what is now called stile smeraldino.
Michele Busiri Vici, meanwhile, designs the Stella Maris church, whose architectural simplicity contrasts with the surrounding luxury.
A complete holiday aesthetic emerges. To better accommodate visitors, the airline Alisarda is founded and chaired by a key figure in the Aga Khan’s circle, the lawyer Paolo Ricciardi, and Porto Cervo quickly gets its own airport: Olbia – Costa Smeralda.
Perfectly integrated into the surrounding landscape, deliberately discreet, Porto Cervo is planned down to the smallest detail, so as not to disrupt the picturesque and idealised image of the Mediterranean.
The place is undeniably beautiful. But I’m not convinced its fabricated nature creates any real emotional attachment for visitors. It may lack soul, to my humble opinion.
August 14, 2026
