Hundred Horse Chestnut

The chestnut tree today

The tree in a gouache by Jean-Pierre Houël ca. 1777.

Coordinates: 37°45′00.7″N 15°7′49.4″E / 37.750194°N 15.130389°E / 37.750194; 15.130389

The Hundred Horse Chestnut (Italian: Castagno dei Cento Cavalli; Sicilian: Castagnu dê Centu Cavaddi) is the largest and oldest known chestnut tree in the world.^[1][2] Located on Linguaglossa road in Sant'Alfio, on the eastern slope of Mount Etna in Sicily^[3] — only 8 km (5.0 mi) from the volcano's crater — it is generally believed to be 2,000 to 4,000 years old (4,000 according to the botanist Bruno Peyronel from Turin).^[4] It is a Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa, family Fagaceae). Guinness World Records has listed it for the record of "Greatest Tree Girth Ever", noting that it had a circumference of 57.9 m (190 ft) when it was measured in 1780. Above-ground the tree has since split into multiple large trunks, but below-ground these trunks still share the same roots.

The tree's name originated from a legend in which a queen of Aragon and her company of one hundred knights, during a trip to Mount Etna, were caught in a severe thunderstorm. The entire company is said to have taken shelter under the tree.^[3][5]

Literary allusions

The tree and its legend have become the subject of various songs and poems, including the following Sicilian-language description by the Catanese poet Giuseppe Borrello (1820–1894):

Sicilian	English
Un pedi di castagna	A chestnut tree
tantu grossu	was so large
ca ccu li rami so' forma un paracqua	that its branches formed an umbrella
sutta di cui si riparò di l'acqua,	under which refuge was sought from the rain
di fùrmini, e saitti	from thunder bolts and flashes of lightning
la riggina Giuvanna	by Queen Joanna
ccu centu cavaleri,	with a hundred knights,
quannu ppi visitari Mungibeddu	when on her way to Mt Etna
vinni surprisa di lu timpurali.	was taken by surprise by a fierce storm.
D'allura si chiamò	From then on so was it named
st'àrvulu situatu 'ntra 'na valli	this tree nestled in a valley and its courses
lu gran castagnu d'i centu cavalli.	the great chestnut tree of one hundred horses.[6]

Another Catanese poet, Giuseppe Villaroel (1889–1965), described the tree in the following sonnet (written in Italian):

Dal tronco, enorme torre millenaria,

i verdi rami in folli ondeggiamenti,

sotto l'amplesso quèrulo dei venti,

svettano ne l'ampiezza alta de l'aria.

Urge la linfa, ne la statuaria

perplessità de le radici ergenti,

sotto i lacoontei contorcimenti,

dal suolo che s'intesse d'orticaria.

E l'albero - Briareo lignificato -

ne lo spasimo atroce che lo stringe

con catene invisibili alla terra,

tende le braccia multiple di sfinge

scagliando contro il cielo e contro il fato

una muta minaccia ebbra di guerra.^[6]

References

1. ^  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
2. ^ "Chestnut Dinner in the Mountains of Italy". Barilla online. 2005. Archived from the original on 2006-10-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20061018214824/http://www.barillaus.com/Chestnut_Dinner__Intro.aspx. Retrieved 2006-12-22. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Senna, Luciana (2005). Authentic Sicily. Touring Editore. p. 112. ISBN 8836534031. http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN8836534031. .
4. ^ Lewington, Anna; Edward Parker (2002). Ancient Trees: Trees That Live for 1,000 Years. Sterling Publishing Co.. p. 92. ISBN 1855859742. http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1855859742. 
5. ^ The Chestnut tree of Mount Etna, detailed account of the tree, its state and its surroundings, written by Wm. Rushton on June 29, 1871.
6. ^ ^{a b} "Poesie sul Castagno dei Cento Cavalli". (Sicilian) Catania Natura. Dipartimento di Botanica, University of Catania. http://www.dipbot.unict.it/ctnatura/flora/LIR_100.html. Retrieved 2006-12-22. 

External links

• Various illustrations of the tree throughout history at the Wayback Machine (archived May 9, 2006)