The discovery of the forest

The Fossil Forest came to light in the late 1970s, within a clay quarry intended for the manufacture of bricks for construction. Much of it is still buried by sediment, however, the remains of about fifty trunks of giant conifers are clearly visible.

These constitute exceptional and rare evidence of some of the plant species that inhabited this part of the Italian peninsula several million years ago.

The forest dates from between 3 and 2 million years ago, that is, in the geological period known as the Pliocene, when atmospheric upheavals and significantly warmer temperatures characterized the climate.

The logs, although largely severely tilted, are still in their living position and have retained the characteristics of the original wood. They have undergone continuous burial that occurred within a gradually sinking marshy area.

The huge swamp of geologic Lake Tiberinus.

The forest was located on the plain where, in the Pliocene, a huge river flowed, the western branch of what geologists call Lake Tiberino. It was a vast basin of salt water, shaped like an inverted ipsilon, that forked just at the height of Perugia.

Much of Umbria was submerged, and its plains were subject to continuous flooding and overflowing, as well as long periods of water stagnation.

Deposits of sand and clay first, and tectonic movements later, changed the setting, allowing Umbria and its forests to emerge permanently.