What is the oldest tree in Bansko?
The oldest tree near Bansko is Baikushev's Pine, a Bosnian pine in Pirin National Park about 12 to 15 kilometres from the town. It is usually given as roughly 1,300 years old, a figure that comes from the tradition that it was already alive under Khan Asparuh around 681, rather than from any dating method a source names. Its trunk is 7.8 metres round, 2.22 metres through, under a crown 24 metres tall. It is free to visit, with a fence and a wooden staircase built around it.
The age is a repeated figure and worth reading as one. Bulgarian sources describe the pine as a contemporary of Khan Asparuh, who founded the First Bulgarian Empire around 681, and roughly 1,300 years follows from that framing; none of them names a ring count, a core sample or the person who did the work. The measurements are firmer, and for a Bosnian pine they are exceptional: 7.8 metres of circumference, 2.22 metres of diameter, 24 metres of height. Pinus heldreichii is a high-altitude species that grows slowly on thin limestone soil in the Balkan mountains, which is the usual recipe for a tree that outlasts the states around it. The name belongs to Kostadin Baikushev, the forest ranger who identified it. What has grown up around the tree since is a small pilgrimage: a fence to keep feet off the root plate, a wooden staircase, a parking area about 400 metres past the Banderitsa hut, and a bus that runs up from Bansko in season.
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