Chestnut culture

This term is a way of indicating a form of integrated micro-economy typical of settlements located at high elevation that is still visible in some places. Under this system, small, adjacent plots of land were set aside for different uses to support the community. A chestnut grove might be alongside a pasture, a coppice next to terraced land, resulting in an intense anthropization of the territory and a minute parcellation of property. Although redesigned in its smallest particulars, the natural environment still communicates, through the sober lines of its low stone walls, this sense of harmony and balance.

The chestnut tree was, and to some extent still is, the true protagonist in these parts, with economic activity, diet and social relations all revolving around it. The villagers adapted their rhythms to those of nature, from maintaining the woods to gathering their fruits, from storing firewood to fabricating utensils to extracting tannin for tanning leather.