Umbra Forest

Natural Site

The Umbra Forest has an area of about 10,000 hectares and is located in the innermost part of the Gargano promontory, it presents a rugged geography with reliefs that reach 800 meters above sea level and offshoots that extend to the coasts. The Umbra Forest is rich in flora, boasts over 2,000 of plant species, and is the largest Italian deciduous forest with beech trees, which are real botanical monuments, with heights of over 40 meters and diameters greater than one meter. There are about 4,000 hectares of beech groves of Cerro, with the presence of Farnetto, Leccio, Roverella and noble species such as Acero or Palo, Carpino bianco, Acero campestre, Acero montano, Orniello, Tasso and many other species, in particular the Aleppo Pine in the coastal areas. Rich is also the low Mediterranean maquis present widely in the territory and in the undergrowth, with Holly oaks, Vitalbe, Lentisco, Ginepro and others, Wild orchids with as many as 65 species: a record in the whole Mediterranean basin! Also the fauna is very rich and varied, typical is the autochthonous Gargano roe deer, the wild cat, the wild boar, the badger, the weasel, the dormouse and the avifauna: the eagle owl, the common owl, the woodpecker, the owl , the Barbagianni, the Gazza, the Beccaccia and others. The Gargano and the Umbra Forest can be defined as “the kingdom of biodiversity”, in fact, even if the Gargano represents only 0.7% of the national territory, it holds 40% of the Italian flora and 70% of the nested birds in our country . La Foresta formerly belonged to feudal properties, was later ceded to the municipalities of Monte Sant’Angelo, Carpino, Ischitella, Vico del Gargano, Peschici and Mattinata. In 1861, after the fall of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, it passed to the State of the Kingdom of Italy and, with the law of 4 March 1896 n. 3713, was declared inalienable and handed over to the State Forestry Administration.

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