LE MARCHE

Passions & Places

Fossombrone Reserve




 

 

Natural Park
Gola del Furlo


It is located in a territory controlled by four protected faunistic areas and divided  between the towns of Acqualagna, Cagli, Fermignano, Fossombrone and Urbino.

If we could fly like an eagle we could discover all the secrets and the sublime foreshortenings of Furlo: the narrow gallery, carved in the rock by the ancient population of Umbria region(around 450 b.C ),just where Paganuccio mountain and Pietralata mountain lean against each other on the Candigliano river.

Near this narrow gallery, a more comfortable passage was carved in the rock in 76 b.C by Vespasiano, a Roman Emperor (the name of the gallery is Forulus which substituted the older name of Pietra Pertusa and from which the name Furlo derives).

Bridges and viaducts were the starting point for the construction of the Flaminia, which connecting Rome to Fano (and the Adriatic sea) ,became the most important both as a way of communication and also for its historical value.

What follows ,is the wonderful visit to the Grotta del grano (cave of grain), a rocky gorge used by Romans as a deposit for their grain and in which a lot of prehistoric fossils were found. Then, you can go into the gorge and see how the swift currents of the river have carved the rock discovering a sort of limestone, of great interest for the geologists and those who are interested in fossils.

At last, what you could see is a little fluvial basin (composed by a hydroelectric dam) shining among the white-pink rocks and the green of the woods full of life and animated by wolves, climbing wood peckers and by the slowly hedgehogs.

You can also reach the Sanctuary of Pelingo (with a wonderful fresco of the XV century) to suddenly discover  the solemn abbey of Saint Vincenzo of Furlo (or of Pietra Pertusa).built by the Benedictine monks in the VIII century, of which deep peaceful atmosphere enjoyed Saint Romualdo, Saint Pier Damiani and a lot of other pilgrims looking for a refuge wandering through the mysterious paths of this place.

Today, a great number of visitors come here to enjoy those marvellous sanctuaries, even after a day spent looking for truffles, the most precious product of this land ,so rich and generous.

What you could enjoy is, in one word, a touching and suggestive landscape: the landscape of  Furlo, where among woods and water, rocks are the main protagonists.

 

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