Gernikako Arbola, the Tree of Gernika

The oak everyone comes to see was planted in 2015. That is the arrangement rather than a disappointment. The Tree of Gernika is a dynasty, and this is the fifth trunk to hold the post. It was raised from a sapling born in 2000 in the Arratia valley, in the direct line of its predecessors, and went into the ground in March 2015 after the fourth tree died in 2005 of poor drainage. What this ground has witnessed is the reason to stand here. Under oaks on this spot the Lords of Biscay swore to respect the fueros, the charters of Basque self-government, from the Middle Ages onward, and Castilian kings and Carlist pretenders took the same oath. The third tree, which stood from 1858 to 2004, was a few dozen metres away when the Luftwaffe bombed Gernika in 1937, and it survived. Afterwards Carlist volunteers guarded it against Falangists who wanted the symbol destroyed. Honey fungus, not a bomb, finally killed it. The name travelled further than any of the trees did. 'Gernikako Arbola' is the Basque anthem, and the oak stands in the coat of arms of Bizkaia. A slice of an earlier trunk and a stone cross cut from another are kept nearby, so the old wood is a few steps from the young tree.