Assisi stops at this oak. Walk out through Porta Cappuccini, the highest of the town's medieval gates, and the paving gives way to a dirt track toward Fontemaggio and the Eremo delle Carceri. The downy oak stands at that fork, marking the line where the walled town ends and Monte Subasio begins, which is why the town calls it simply la cerqua di Porta Cappuccini, the oak of the Capuchin gate. Italy's national register measures it at 4.8 metres round and 21 metres tall. Two other surveys give 5 metres and 25 metres, which is what happens when a living tree is measured years apart rather than a sign that anyone got it wrong. Downy oak is the dry-hillside oak of central Italy and it is usually cut for firewood long before it reaches anything like this size. This one was left, standing over the old walking route that pilgrims still take up to the hermitage where Francis withdrew to pray. The tree sits inside a private orchard, so the view is from the path rather than from under the crown. For a tree this wide that is the better vantage anyway, and the path is public. Nobody has recorded an age for it. Italy's register does not carry one and neither do the local sources. If you know, tell us.
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Via Lorenzo Perosi, beyond Porta Cappuccini, AssisiA wide downy oak standing alone at the fork just beyond Porta Cappuccini, where the paved road gives way to the dirt track toward Fontemaggio and the hermitage.
Stands within a private orchard/garden at the fork where Via Lorenzo Perosi meets the dirt track to Fontemaggio, just beyond Porta Cappuccini; visible and photographable from the public path, which is the old pilgrim route to the Eremo delle Carceri. No entry to the orchard itself.
A short walk uphill from Porta Cappuccini, one of Assisi's historic gates, on the walking route toward the Eremo delle Carceri
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
- In the official register: Elenco degli alberi monumentali d'Italia (MASAF), no. 01/A475/PG/10
- it.wikipedia.org
- montagneaperte.it
- MASAF, Elenco degli alberi monumentali d'Italia (Italy's national register of monumental trees), no. 01/A475/PG/10
