The Tree of St. Francis's Time

This was the first tree Italy ever entered on its national register of monumental trees. Entry number one is a holm oak at the Eremo delle Carceri, standing beside the path to the cave where Francis of Assisi withdrew to pray. A sign at the site calls it the Albero del tempo di San Francesco, the tree of St Francis's time, and gives it 850 to 1,000 years, which would put it here before he was. Read that as the hermitage's claim rather than as a measurement: it is a devotional attribution, not a growth-rate estimate, and two metres of girth is modest for a holm oak of nine centuries. What is not in doubt is why the register wanted it. Its sheet carries criterion g, historic and religious value, alongside age and size, which is the state saying out loud that this tree matters for what happened next to it. It is a small, hard-worn tree, nine metres tall with a crown of four, which for a species that can spread twenty says everything about 800 metres of altitude and thin limestone soil. It stands inside a holm oak wood of roughly fifty hectares, described locally as one of the most important in central Italy. The hermitage is open daily and entry is free. Nobody has dated the tree by measurement. If someone has, tell us.