The Castanyer Bord of Placa de Carles Buigas

The horse chestnut in Placa de Carles Buigas went into the ground around 1937, in the middle of the Spanish Civil War, in a city then still held by the Republic. Barcelona calls it a castanyer bord, or bastard chestnut, the old label for Aesculus hippocastanum: it looks like the sweet chestnut that gives Catalonia its autumn treat, but its conkers are bitter and inedible. Catalogued as a tree of local interest in 1997, it has grown to 15.5 metres with a trunk 1.84 metres round and a crown spreading 11 metres, respectable rather than record-setting, which is exactly why the city keeps a list of local-interest trees at all: not every tree worth keeping is the biggest one in town. The square takes its name from Carles Buigas, the engineer who built the Font Magica, Montjuic's musical fountain, right where this tree now stands. A visitor can watch the evening light show and stand under a tree not far off the fountain's own age. No record we found says how freely it flowers each April compared with other horse chestnuts in the city; if you know, tell us.