Bosco Fontana is a 300 he beech forest in the municipality of Rezzoaglio, in strict connection with the hamlet of Cerisola, Rocca and Villanoce and it’s currently included in the Aveto Regional Natural Park.
This territory represents a multi-stratified landscape where we can see traces of human activities since the pre-protohistoric times (caves and sporadic remains of artifacts founded in the near Monte Aiona) to the present.
The story of Bosco Fontana begins in the mid-XV century when two brothers, Gherardo and Opicino Fontana of Villanoce, bought the woodland as a private forest.
During the XVI-XVIII centuries, the territory became a fief of the Doria family who used it for wood collection and iron production. From the XIX century to present, Bosco Fontana became officially a collective property, and the different local familiar groups joint together under the surname “Fontana”; during this period, various internal and external conflicts occurred.
Today the owner, the heirs of the ancient Fontana, are united in the Comunione Familiare of Bosco Fontana, a legally recognised association that allow them to independently manage the forest that they use for wood collection and production of energy from water.