The millenary olive tree of Sant'Emiliano

In Bovara, a tiny hamlet of the municipality of Trevi, a locality considered sacred by pagans, there is one of the oldest olive trees in Italy: the olive tree of Sant’Emiliano or, more correctly, of San Miliano. It is a majestic plant with a trunk circumference at the base of 9 meters, a height of 5 meters, and a crown circumference of over 8 meters.
The trunk is no longer whole, but is deeply split in two, as often happens with extremely old olive trees because of the twisting process they undergo over time.

Recent radiocarbon studies conducted by Guido Bonci (CNR ISAFoM [National Research Council Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems in the Mediterranean], Perugia branch), Luigi Campatola (University of Naples), Giorgio Pannelli (Istituto Olivicoltura MIPA [Ministry of Agricultural Policies Institute for Olive Growing], Spoleto), and Luciana Baldoni (CNR IGV [National Research Council Institute of Plant Genetics], Perugia), for the purpose of dating this plant, confirmed that it is over a thousand years old (1,830 +/- 260 years), and one of the oldest in Italy.

The millenary olive tree is mentioned in an ancient 9th-century codex telling of the martyrdom of St. Emiliano, the first bishop of Trevi in the year 303 or 304 AD.
It states that “they tied him to a young olive tree”, where he was beheaded.
That particular olive tree has always been identified as the one that can be admired in the municipality of Trevi, in the locality of Bovara, which bears the name of the bishop.

It is an uncommon plant, especially for the fact that even though it is situated at a low elevation, where olive trees are repeatedly destroyed by rime ice, this one has not suffered any damages of this kind.

Guido Bonci places the Olive Tree of Sant’Emiliano genetically in a position of transition between the Olivastro and the Moraiolo.
In the Spoleto-Terni district (respectively in the localities of San Tommaso and Cesi) at least two other similar plants have been identified, so that it is believed there is a possible ancestral variety present in this area.

In Italy there are only three other olive trees older than that of Bovara. One is in Luras, in Sardinia (around 4,000 years old), one is in Borgagne in Salento (between 3,000 and 4,000 years old), and one is in Palombara Sabina in Lazio (around 3,000 years old).
In any case, of the four trees, that of Trevi has the northernmost position.