The Trees of the Embrace

An oak and a plane standing twenty metres apart at the foot of the Bom Jesus funicular are registered under the same name: arvore do Abraco, the tree of the embrace. That is not a nickname picked up from a guidebook. It is written into each tree's own entry in Portugal's register of trees of public interest, and both were classified on the same day in July 2010. What nobody has written down is why. No source we have found explains the name: whether the two crowns once met over the path, whether it belongs to a story attached to the sanctuary on the hill above, or whether it is simply what people in Tenoes have always called them. If you know where the name comes from, tell us and it goes on the page. Both trees were put at 100 years old when they were measured in 2010, which makes them around 115 now. The oak is the heavier of the two, 3.7 metres round with a crown almost 25 metres across; the plane is slimmer at 2.55 metres and marginally the taller at 26. They stand at the station of the Elevador do Bom Jesus, the water-counterbalanced funicular that has hauled pilgrims up to the sanctuary since 1882. Looking at the trees costs nothing. The ride is a separate ticket.