The Centenary Horse Chestnut of Parque de Doña Casilda

In a park stocked with trees from five continents, the specimen the guides keep naming is a horse chestnut. Parque de Doña Casilda de Iturrizar is Bilbao's largest central park, 115,200 square metres of ponds, pergola and imported botany begun in 1907, and its planting runs to dozens of species from all over the world. The one that gets singled out is Aesculus hippocastanum, a Balkan tree so common on northern European streets that children in four countries grow up throwing sticks at it, and here it is always described the same way: centenario, over a hundred years old. Worth knowing how thin that is. Two separately hosted travel pages make the claim, and they make it in almost the same words, un centenario castaño de Indias, which reads like both are repeating one municipal or tourist-board line rather than two people noticing the same tree. Take it as decent evidence that the tree is there and what species it is, and weaker evidence about its age. Nobody has measured it, and centenario is the only number anyone offers. No source says where in the park it stands either, and 115,200 square metres is a lot of ground to sweep for one chestnut. May makes it easier. The crown goes up in white candles and there is no mistaking which tree you are looking at. If you find it, tell us where it is.