Fagus sylvatica: the scientific name of the tree most commonly known as beech. Upright trunk, dark bark, oval, wavy and green leaves. Leaves that in autumn turn brown and then fall, creating a soft carpet on the forest floor. The same leaves then reappear on the branches in spring, giving life to that unique atmosphere that surrounds beech forests in spring, with straight, glossy trunks reaching toward the sky and then wrapped in the pale green of their canopies, bright in the sunlight.
Italy, from the point of view of beech forests, is one of the richest countries in Europe and it houses the oldest beeches on the continent. The beech woods are scattered along the entire Apennine backbone, from Emilia Romagna to Calabria, and on the Prealps, at varying altitudes and with often radically different characteristics. A small spectacle that, in short, unites the country from north to south. Some of these forests have been protected for centuries, first by local lords and then by the State. Others have been preserved from human exploitation thanks to their remote accessibility. Others yet enjoy today the status of UNESCO World Heritage.
Casentinesi Forests
In the heart of Tuscany and Emilia Romagna, the National Park of Casentinesi Forests, Monte Falterona and Campigna is one of the green lungs of central Italy. Its beech forests, extending over more than 36,000 hectares of protected land, are among the largest and best-preserved in the peninsula and one of the distinctive features of this stretch of the Apennines.
Walking among the beech woods of the Park in spring is indeed one of the finest experiences it offers. The bright green of the new crowns scintillates in the sunlight, while the smooth trunks stand as sentinels to the trekkers crossing the woods and the leaves fallen during the winter season crowd the trails.
The presence within the Park of hermitic and spiritual places such as the Verna, a famous Franciscan sanctuary, or the Hermitage of Camaldoli, reinforces the atmosphere typical of beech forests, immersed in their characteristic silence, interrupted only by the footsteps of those who pass through and the rustling of leaves slapped by the wind.
In the heart of the Park rises the Integral Natural Reserve of Sasso Fratino, today a UNESCO World Heritage site together with a broad surrounding area. It is the oldest integral natural reserve in Italy, established at the end of the 1950s, located on the northern side of the Apennine ridge facing Romagna, not far from the beautiful natural balcony of Poggio Scali.
Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park
Established in 1923, the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park is one of the oldest national parks in Italy. The Marsican brown bear, a subspecies of the brown bear found only in this area and nowhere else in the world, is the symbol of this protected area, which has very likely saved it from extinction.
The beech forests of the park, divided into five areas (Val Fondillo, Coppo del Principe, Moricento, Val Cervara, Coppo del Morto), have an ancient appearance. The beeches here reach imposing dimensions, a testament to their longevity. This species is known for its longevity and for its ability to live for centuries.
There are countless trails and routes that cross the park’s beech forests, which extend beyond Abruzzo into Lazio and Molise. Trekking is the main activity within the protected area, and the network of trails is extensive, varied and suitable for all levels. Moreover, within the Park it is easy to encounter the rich fauna, especially in spring, including chamois, deer and sightings of the rare lynx.
The path that connects Pescasseroli to Opi, passing through the Monte Tranquillo Pass, is one of the most beautiful and accessible in the entire park and passes through one of the beech forests most beautiful in the Park.
Umbra Forest
It might surprise to find oneself in the midst of a dense beech forest, with the leaves rustling to interrupt a complete silence, in the heart of southern Italy, just a few dozen kilometers from some of Italy’s most beautiful beaches.
This happens in Puglia, in the Gargano National Park, where the Umbra Forest is located, a dense woodland (umbra from the Latin word for shadow) that extends through the center of the protected area for over 10,000 hectares and is characterized mainly by ancient beeches, with large trunks that rise tens of meters high, flanked by oaks, yews, maples and hornbeams.
The ancient beech forests of the Umbra Forest have been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2017, within the transnational site of the Ancient Primordial Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, a recognition that underscores their exceptional value from both a natural and historical standpoint.
From the Umbra Forest Visitor Center, where there is also a small museum, fourteen marked trails depart, allowing visitors to explore the wood on foot, choosing between short half-hour strolls or longer hikes that last for several hours.
Cansiglio Forest
Located between the provinces of Belluno, Treviso and Pordenone, in the area of the Eastern Prealps, the Cansiglio Forest spans a plateau shaped like a bowl at an altitude between 900 and 1,200 meters above sea level. Here, there are over 7,000 hectares of nearly continuous forest, making it the second-largest forest in Italy by extent.
Its history is fascinating: when in 1420 the plateau became part of the possessions of the Republic of Venice, the Cansiglio became a strategic resource of utmost importance for the Doges of the Serenissima: the great forest of oars, as it was known, provided the beech timber necessary to carve the oars of the ships of the lagoon fleet.
Venetian forest management was strict and meticulous: every tree was census-ed, every cut regulated, so much so that even today the forest bears the mark of that centuries-long care in its unnaturally orderly structure. A care that has also helped to preserve the forest itself. It was then with the Unification of Italy that the Cansiglio became a state forest.
The beeches are not the only trees present in the forest, which is also characterized by a substantial amount of red fir, but in spring the bright green of the new leaves shines under the sun, in a mountain setting as unique and special as that plateau, where the woods and meadows alternate before visitors’ eyes.
Pollino National Park
The Pollino National Park is Italy’s largest national park by area and stretches between Calabria and Basilicata along a mountain range that separates the Tyrrhenian Sea from the Ionian, with a crest of peaks that in several places exceed 2,000 meters.
The most famous natural feature of Pollino from a natural standpoint is the presence of the loricata pine (Pinus leucodermis), a rare and long-lived tree that has become a symbol of the park and the region. However, along the ridges and slopes of the massif, wide beech forests can be found that in spring become protagonists thanks to their striking rebirth after the winter season.
There are two main beech forests in the Pollino Park: the Beech Forest of Cozzo Ferriero, in the municipality of Rotonda in Basilicata, spanning about 70 hectares and hosting monumental specimens over four centuries old; and the Beech Forest of Pollinello, in the municipality of Castrovillari and not far from the summit of Monte Pollino, hosting trees that the University of Tuscia has dated as older than six hundred years.
