Two millennia of history

In the “Assisi-Spoleto Olive Belt” the phytotoponym “oliveto” (olive grove) is non-existent. There are numerous “-eto” terms and names such as cerreto (turkey oak forest), cerquiglieto (oak forest), elceto (holm oak forest), and carpineto (hornbeam forest), while the olive grove is called “chiusa dei piantoni”.
This is because the olive tree is a plant that was originally foreign, and which took root via massive artificial means: the olive tree was brought in and planted with great difficulty and constantly kept protected (in chiuse). And yet, Umbrian olive-growing has extremely ancient roots: the Etruscans were the first to cultivate the olive tree, using its fruit for direct consumption, as indicated by the finding of pits in containers set inside Etruscan tombs from the 7th century BC.
The olive tree was also used greatly in the Roman age, as documented by archaeological excavations, and even during the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, when “barbarian” populations, whose diet was based on butter, meat, and beer, arrived in Italy. Olive oil maintained its cultural value, both as a consumer good and as an indispensable element of the liturgy.

In the 16th and 17th centuries there was a growing interest in olive-growing, and the olive tree of the Assisi-Spoleto area spread widely also up to an elevation of 500-600 meters, replacing the woods.
In emphyteusis, rent, and colony contracts there was often the obligation to plant olive trees. It is not rare for late medieval and Renaissance paintings to show glimpses of landscapes in which man’s intervention on the natural environment is evident.
Given the commercial value of the oil and its appreciation by the higher classes of the population, olive cultivation between the 17th and 19th centuries tended to take over larger and larger areas, and the oil of the Umbrian territories was highly valued, especially on the large market of Rome or that of Florence.
Many of the impressive traditional olive groves, like those covering the piedmont belt from Assisi to Spoleto, are mainly the result of interventions supporting new plantings made several times by the Papal State starting from the late 18th century, through to the Unity of Italy.

The Assisi-Spoleto Olive Belt is the result of enormous agronomic interventions and land reorganizations carried out in particular in the mid-18th century. The model was the system used in the Tuscany of Leopold II for the reclamation of the Valdichiana area; this entailed the descent into the valley of populations whose settlements were originally in the piedmont areas next to the plains.
The climbing terrains were covered with olive trees following the plans of the Accademia dei Georgofili.
The population thus had at their disposal a winter cultivation on which to employ the excess labor, which became available following the reclamation operations in the plain.

With the reclamation of the “Spoleto valley”, the pre-existing olive trees, closed within the monastery and convent gardens situated next to the towns or in the towns themselves, were incorporated into the olive-growing piedmont belt in accordance with a unitary plan for the revitalization of the cultivations, implemented in parallel with the reclamation of the valley floor, where intensive grain cultivations were concentrated, punctuated by the trees with “married” grapevines.