Bosco di San Francesco

Directly below Assisi's Upper Basilica, the Bosco di San Francesco covers 64 hectares of woodland, meadows and olive terraces along the Tescio stream. Managed by FAI, the landscape brings together Franciscan history, the Santa Croce complex, a fortified mill and Michelangelo Pistoletto's land-art work Terzo Paradiso.

Why it matters

The wood forms part of the landscape associated with the Franciscan story. Its history spans roughly eight centuries. FAI took the property into its care in 2008 after a donation from Intesa Sanpaolo; following restoration, it opened to visitors and pilgrims in 2011. The property combines protected woodland with working farmland: holm oak and downy oak shade paths through the wood, while terraced olive groves remain cultivated.

What to notice

The Ponte dei Galli, a travertine bridge first built in 1356, crosses the Tescio. At Santa Croce, the Romanesque church has an apse fresco dated 1643 and attributed to Gerolamo Marinelli; the complex also includes an old pilgrims' hospice and a fortified mill. The contemporary landmark is Pistoletto's Terzo Paradiso, a land-art work made from 121 olive trees planted in double rows to form three tangent circles around a twelve-metre steel mast. The Annamaria tower offers a view of the work's overall geometry.

Context and history

The estate entered FAI's care in 2008, and restoration preceded its public opening in 2011. The works rebuilt collapsed terraces, established paths and secured the Santa Croce buildings. Benedictine nuns inhabited the complex between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The site's layers include the former hospice for pilgrims travelling to the Porziuncola and the water economy of the Tescio valley. The woodland and cultivated farmland remain part of a single protected landscape.