1800 Ha Estate With Medieval Abbey And 50 Farmhouses For Sale In Umbria

In the hills of Umbria, not far from Perugia and in an area of rare beauty, impressive estate with medieval abbey for sale. The numerous buildings on the estate largely need restoration work, but the property boasts incredible development potential with the possibility of creating a high-level accommodation business (over 150 potential bedrooms) combined with the agricultural activity already in place.

The heart of the property is the beautiful 10th-century Benedictine abbey (over 6,500 m²). The building rose on the remains of a pre-existing Roman temple and reached its peak around the 12th century. Over the years, various bequests and donations meant that the abbey came to exert its influence over more than thirty towns and twenty castles in the Perugia area. The cloister and church visible today were built in the 13th century, and during the same period the same buildings were embellished with fine art and furnishings. Crisis began to set in at the end of the 14th century, and the abbey slowly became depopulated, until in 1602 it became the focal point of a large farm.
A group of Cistercian monks came to the abbey in 1749 and remained there continuously until the Unification of Italy, when the property was expropriated and sold.
The interior of the abbey still features original elements of rare beauty: the chapter house houses beautiful religious-themed frescoes from the late 13th century, while the church (dating back to the 14th century) still has the original altars decorated with frescoes by Bartolomeo Caporali and Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. In the basement, however, is the crypt, which is, to date, the oldest part of the abbey.

In the grounds of the abbey there are also 50 rustic buildings including farmhouses and agricultural outbuildings (over 27,000 m²): some of these (around twenty) have been renovated over the years and are in excellent condition, while the remaining ones are in need of restoration, consolidation and renovation. At the same time, the Master Plan of the Municipality of Perugia would allow the construction of new volumes within some areas of the property (roughly equal to those already existing) intended for tourist and accommodation activities.

The estate stretches in its interest for 1,807.2 hectares (4,465.7 acres) straddling the municipalities of Perugia and Gubbio, in a very interesting landscape area. Agricultural production focuses mainly on cereals and oilseeds (over 346 ha of arable land with excellent exposure). However, there is no shortage of vineyards (about 10.2 ha) and several olive groves (over 51 ha for a total of 12,000 trees in production). The rest of the farm is covered by woods (896 ha) and pastures (346 ha) that would also allow the start-up of breeding activities (these lands are partially rented to local shepherds who exploit them precisely for cattle and sheep breeding).
Finally, there is a wildlife and hunting reserve (over 1,000 ha) that extends around and protects the abbey.

An extensive network of roads, mostly for the estate’s private use and closed to motor vehicles, combined with numerous trails that cross the entire estate, ensures very easy connections between the various points of the farm and the possibility of creating tourist and recreational routes to support potential accommodation activity.

Added to this is the proximity to basic services, available in the nearby town (less than 10’ drive), the historic center of Perugia (14 km) and the airport (15’).

CLOSEST CITIES AND TOWNS
Closest services (6km; 10’), Perugia (14km; 20’), Gubbio (29km; 35’), Bastia Umbra (20km; 20’), Umbertide (21km; 20’), Deruta (28km; 20’), Assisi (31km; 30’), Spello (34km, 25’), Magione (38km; 30’), Foligno (39km, 35’), Città di Castello (43km, 35’), Todi (57km, 44’), Spoleto (66km, 50’), Cortona (68km, 55’), Arezzo (79km, 1h 10’)

CLOSEST AIRPORTS
Perugia San Francesco (13km; 15’), Ancona R. Sanzio (116km; 1h 20’), Firenze A. Vespucci (187km; 2h 15’), Roma Ciampino (195km; 2h 10’), Roma Fiumicino (209km; 2h 15’), Bologna G. Marconi (231km; 2h 35’), Pisa G. Galilei (247km; 2h 50’)