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Hexagonal LuFeO 3 films have been studied using x-ray absorption and optical spectroscopy. The crystal splitting of Fe 3+ is extracted as E e′− E e ″= 0.7 eV and E a 1′− E e′= 0.9 eV⁠, and a 2.0 eV optical bandgap is determined assuming a direct gap. First-principles calculations confirm the experiments that the relative energies of crystal field splitting states do follow E a 1′> E e′> E e ″with slightly underestimated values and a bandgap of 1.35 eV.