Chestnut of hundreds of horses (Castagno dei Cento Cavalli) description and photos - Italy: Sicily Island (Topic)

Chestnut of a hundred horses (Castagno dei Cento Cavalli) description and photos - Italy: Sicily Island. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Castagno dei Cento Cavalli.

Photo and description

The chestnut of hundreds of horses is a unique attraction of Sicily, located in the village of Sant Alfio on the eastern slope of Etna, 8 km from the volcano crater. Scientists consider this chestnut to be the largest and oldest in the world - it is from 2 to 4 thousand years old. And in the Guinness Book of Records, it is entered as a tree with a trunk of the greatest girth: in 1780, the circumference of the trunk was almost 58 meters! The height of the tree is 22 meters. Despite the fact that the chestnut has three trunks 13, 20 and 22 meters high, they all have one common root.

This tree is mentioned several times in Italian poems and songs. Even the origin of its name has its own legend, according to which one day the queen, caught in a thunderstorm while hunting, took refuge under the crowns of a chestnut tree, along with a hundred knights accompanying her. The thunderstorm lasted until evening, and the whole retinue sat under a tree. Hence the romantic name - the Chestnut of a Hundred Horses. It is not known for certain which queen we are talking about - perhaps it was Giovanna I of Aragon (1455 - 1517). According to another version - the English Empress Elizabeth, the third wife of Frederick II. Finally, some suggest that it is about the Queen of Naples Giovanna I (1328 - 1382), with whose name the infamous Sicilian Vespers is associated. But, most likely, all these legends are just a figment of the people's imagination.

About 400 meters from the Chestnut of a hundred horses, another chestnut grows, which is about a thousand years old - the Chestnut Ship, also called the Chestnut of Saint Agatha. This tree, according to some scientific evidence, is the second oldest and largest in Italy. Its trunk circumference is 20 meters, height - 19 meters.

And in the vicinity of the village of Zafferana Etnea, on the eastern slope of Etna, you can see the stone oak Ilice di Carrino, which is also estimated to be a thousand years old. It has a trunk girth of 4 meters and a height of 19 meters.

We also recommend reading Landscape alley description and photo - Ukraine: Kiev

Topic: Chestnut of hundreds of horses (Castagno dei Cento Cavalli) description and photos - Italy: Sicily Island.