On 2 June 2018 a storm tore off one of this elm's three great limbs, and the tree kept going. It had already survived something far worse: the Dutch elm disease that killed more than three quarters of Europe's elms in the 20th century, spread by bark beetles. The Elm of Căpeni, Köpec in Hungarian, won Romania's Tree of the Year in 2011 with 13,096 votes and came second in Europe in 2012 with 9,812. It stands in a field beside the bridge over the Baraolt stream, just north of the village and off road DJ131, in the Szekler country of Transylvania. It is over 35 metres tall and 7.3 metres round, and a 2011 Romanian news report puts its planting in the early 18th century, which makes it roughly 300 years old. It has also come through the floods and fires of the Baraolt stream, though no source dates them. The damage from 2018 is not hidden: the broken limb was cut back and the wound sealed with a rubbery coating, and you can see it. A travel writer who visited in September 2023 found a mowed path of about a hundred metres leading from the road through the field to the trunk, and an information panel with the tree's details, and suggested a stop of ten to fifteen minutes. That is about right for the tree, and a little short for the thought that a field elm this size is something most of Europe no longer has.
Beside the bridge over the Baraolt stream, north of Căpeni village, near road DJ131, Covasna county, Romania You can recognise it by the sealed wound where one of its three main limbs came off in 2018, and by the information panel at its foot. It stands in the field beside the Baraolt stream bridge, reached by a mowed path from DJ131.
Free, in an open field beside the road, reached by a short mowed path from DJ131; an information panel marks the tree, no restriction found
Căpeni village, Covasna county, Szekler region; no rail, reached by car or regional bus along DJ131