Chestnut Tree of One Hundred Horses

The Chestnut Tree of One Hundred Horses ( _it. Castagno dei Cento Cavalli) is the largest and oldest known chestnut tree in the world. [1911] [cite web
url = http://www.barillaus.com/Chestnut_Dinner__Intro.aspx
title = Chestnut Dinner in the Mountains of Italy
work = Barilla online
date = 2005
accessdate= 2006-12-22] Located on Linguaglossa road in Sant'Alfio, on the eastern slope of Mount Etna in Sicilycite book
author = Senna, Luciana
url = http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN8836534031
title = Authentic Sicily
publisher = Touring Editore
year = 2005
id=ISBN 8836534031
pages = p. 112.] — only 8 km (5 miles) from the mountain'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). [cite book
author = Lewington, Anna
coauthors = Edward Parker
url = http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1855859742
title = Ancient Trees: Trees That Live for 1,000 Years
publisher = Sterling Publishing Co.
year = 2002
id = ISBN 1855859742
pages = p. 92] 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. [cite web
url = http://web.archive.org/web/20041001064021/http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/gwr5/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=47354
title = Greatest Tree Girth Ever
work = Guinness World Records online (Internet Archive)
date = 2004-10-01
accessdate = 2006-12-22]

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. [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=turn&entity=HistSciTech001201260012&isize=text The Chestnut tree of Mount Etna] , detailed account of the tree, its state and its surroundings, written by Wm. Rushton on June 29, 1871. ]

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):

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.

References

External links

* [http://www.comune.sant-alfio.ct.it/stampe.htm Various illustrations] of the tree throughout history.