The Ancient Trees of San Pietro in Golgo
Approximate location.
Nobody has ever put an age to these trees, and up on the Golgo plateau that feels about right. A small rural church, San Pietro, sits 13 kilometres above Baunei on a lava tableland, and it is flanked by aged wild olives and hackberries. Two of them are registered individually in Italy's national inventory of monumental trees: a wild olive with a trunk 5.68 metres around and a hackberry at 5.25 metres, standing effectively on the same spot. Sardinia's own forestry service describes the church in exactly those words, fiancheggiata da annosi olivastri e bagolari, flanked by aged wild olives and hackberries. There is no age field anywhere for either of them and no source ventures a guess, so this page does not either. If somebody has measured them, send it to us. The setting does most of the work. Shepherds' stone huts, the cumbessias, stand alongside the church and still fill for the annual festival, and the Su Sterru sinkhole opens in the ground nearby, which is what brings most people up the road in the first place. The long-distance Selvaggio Blu route passes through. There is no gate and no fee, and the church itself is the place to stand.
Beside the rural church of San Pietro (San Pietro in Golgo), Altopiano del Golgo, BauneiYou can recognise them as the aged wild olive and hackberry flanking the rural church, trunks 5.68 and 5.25 metres round. They stand beside San Pietro on the Golgo plateau above Baunei.
Free, a working rural church on open plateau land reached by the paved road up from Baunei (about 13km); also a stop on the Selvaggio Blu and other hiking routes. No gate, no fee found in any source checked.
No public transport; a car is the realistic way, roughly 20 to 25 minutes up the plateau road from Baunei. Frequently visited alongside the Su Sterru sinkhole nearby.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
- In the official register: MASAF, Elenco degli alberi monumentali d'Italia
- sardegnaforeste.it
- idese.cultura.gov.it
- MASAF, Elenco degli alberi monumentali d'Italia (Italy's national register of monumental trees) (sheets 04 and 05/A722/OG/20)
- fotosardegna.it
