A superb holm oak wood of 76 hectares remained miraculously intact, just like the Bourbons sovereigns and the court enjoyed it, when they frequented it on occasions of periodic hunting trips. Just outside the Royal Palace, on the hills of Montemaiuolo and Montebriano, from where the great waterfall feeding the park’s waterway descends.
It is the oasis, currently entrusted to the WWF, that surrounds the Royal House of St. Sylvester, among the Bourbons Royal Delights together with the panoramic viewpoint of St. Leucio and the English Garden of the Royal Palace (Reggia), with which it shares today the Unesco protection, as well as being recognised as a Site of Community Interest for its very high environmental value.
In addition to the wood, the oasis offers more. Much more. San Silvestro was an agricultural estate, dedicated above all to the production of fruit, which never lacked on the king’s table. According to the seasons, there were selected citrus, golden peaches and apricots, highly appreciated figs and crunchy apples from the best species. And after centuries, the Royal Orchard was rebuilt between the steps in front of the courtyard, where the same species that used to grow there have been replanted.
The main building, in the shape of a C, has also been restored and used as a visitor centre with a Naturalistic Museum of the Wood, a room for projections and conferences, while the underground cellar has been used as an exhibition space and restaurant, as well as hosting the laboratories of honey and bees wax. In the agricultural estate a Honey Path has been created, which shows live to the visitors the bees’ life, with the use of an outdoor classroom, where the honey tastes takes place directly from the honeycomb and we assist the bees’wax processing. Another historical-panoramic itinerary is dedicated to the colours, scents and sounds of nature in the oasis and to themes relating to energy and recycling,
The Environmental Education Center and the Educational Farm are named after one of the winged visitors, the Jay. In the ancient Bourbon sheepfold, called Pecoreria, moreover, a guest house has been created with 24 beds, a kitchen and other services, while the Casa dell'Arco (Arch House ) has become an ecological house equipped with the most modern eco-friendly technologies, where the WWF environmental education centre is located.
In the estate, the visitors can take advantage of day and night itineraries in the woods, in the fern garden, the tortoises garden, in the butterflies garden, tin an educational pond and aviaries. There is also a fairy path in the woods to observe fireflies and another for Bat Watching to discover bats thanks to a device that transforms the ultrasounds into sounds audible to humans.
