Don Bernardino Antonio Genovès belonged to a merchant family that was rapidly growing in the nobility thanks to the strong support to the crown, especially financial and political.
His father Antonio Francisco had become Marquis of the Guard in 1699 and himself got the prominent title of Duke of San Pietro in 1737, thus becoming the most relevant Sardinian subject.
In 1745 he proposed to populate the mountains (saltos) of Pompongia, Curcuris, Fenugheda, Isola Maggiore e Fossadus by Oristano in exchange with the title of Marquis of Villahermosa e Santa Croce,[1] being Villahermosa the name of the village to build and populate and Santa Croce (Saint Cross) the church to dedicate.
Upon his death, the treasury took the fief over for debts, but his son managed to obtain a new grant to a nephew, Stefano Manca di Thiesi, a Marquis of Morès's cadet grandson and a cousin of the Duke of Asinara.
Technically, the act of grace by which the king makes an extinct title live again is called a renewal.