From the Ogliarola Barese to the Nocellara del Belice, Italy counts hundreds of olive cultivars that serve as the base of different types of olive oil. One of the country's beloved olive species, the Taggiasca, found in the region of Liguria – also known as the Italian Riviera – was developed hundreds of years ago thanks to the ingenious agricultural techniques of Benedictine monks.
Found in the hills near the coastal town of Taggia, the Taggiasca olive trees produce a dark olive with a fruity aroma and earthy taste. This salty olive fruit can be turned into a light-bodied olive oil suited for almost any purpose from dressing salads to baking fish.
The first evidence of olive cultivation in this region goes back to the 7th century BC, when locals tended to native olive plants. Olives continued to be part of the economy, as attested by a medieval agreement between private citizens and the Bishop of Genova, the capital of Liguria, who granted the use of some fields “safe for the olive trees.”
It wasn’t until the 9th century AD, however, when Benedectine monks started to cultivate the calcareous and clay-rich rocky hills of the region, that olives became one of its most important agricultural crops.
Benedictine monks helped build the olive cultivation by creating the now iconic terraced fields that define Liguria’s rocky seaside landscape. Terrace cultivation, a method of growing crops on the sides of hills by creating systems of graduated terraces that can host lines of trees, was popularized in other parts of the world and proved a very powerful innovation in the local Ligurian context.
Benedictine monks taught the locals how to build the terraces, how to plant seeds, and how to tend to plants in hilly terrains. They also successfully bred olive trees that produced olives well suited for olive oil production, giving rise to the cultivar Taggiasca, one of Italy’s most beloved types of olives.
Cultivation and breeding of Taggiasca olive trees kept going even during the Saracen invasion and occupation of the Benedictine Monastery of Taggia during the 10th century. When the Saracens were eventually pushed back, the local Bishop Teodolfo assigned olive groves to local families, giving rise to the first example of metayage contract, a type of agreement that later defined Italian agricultural production.
By the 13th century, local laws were specifically created to protect olive groves and sanction the theft of olives, suggesting that olives were becoming increasingly vital for the local economy. Then, in the 15th century, partly thanks to the new wave of trade with the “new world,” olives and olive oil became a pillar of the local economy.
In the 17th century, partly thanks to an unusual cold spell in nearby France, Taggia and surroundings became the de facto leaders in olive production. By the 18th century, when this part of Italy was under French rule, Taggia was defined in the Napoleonic Code as the “olive jurisdiction.”
Today, cultivar Taggiasca is known and appreciated all around the world, with gourmet shops offering Taggiasca olives and Taggiasca olive oil from Australia to the US -- yet another gastronomical wonder for which we have to thank the laborious Benedictine monks.
