Santa Maria Navarrese is a coastal and tourist town, frazione ('district') of the municipality of Baunei. Santa Maria Navarrese, founded in the 1950s by Baunese settlers, has grown around a Medieval church dating back to around the AD 1000, consecrated to Santa Maria Assunta. According to tradition, the church was built on behalf of a princess of Navarra, hence the adjective Navarrese in the village's name. The place is known also for a 17th-century watchtower built on the beach.