Italy’s Abruzzo National Park

The southernmost part of the Abruzzi is occupied by the Abruzzi National Park (Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo) with its beautiful beech forests. The park was established in 1922.
The park headquarters are in Percasserori in the Province of L’Aquila. Its present-day area of 44,000 hectares, which is the result of several enlargements, includes 22 towns in the provinces of L’Aquila, Frosinone and Isernia. Thanks to the temperate climate, it is possible to visit the Park all year round!

The Main attraction of Abruzzi are mountains, great during winter periods. Surrounded by peak over two thousand meters tall, the park is covered with beech, black pine and maple forests.

Near the top of the mountains, at 1800 meters in height, the beech wood leaves space to the highlands, where is possible to observe Pino Mugo and many other glacial or endemic species of plants.

Abruzzo boasts the tallest peaks of the Apennine range and the mountains are characterised by deep gorges and large expanses of high plateaux. Inside the Park there are only two lakes: Barrea artificial lake and Lago Vivo.

The park is represented by the Marsican brown bear, Majella by the Apennine wolf, and Gran Sasso-Laga by the Abruzzo chamois.

Here is also good, with Redstarts, all of the region’s six species of Woodpecker (Green, Black, White-backed, Lesser, Middle and Great Spotted) and Western Bonelli’s Warbler choosing to breed in these forests.