The Ancient Olive of Santa Iria de Azoia

A road-widening scheme once looked at this olive and saw an obstacle. Rua 18 de Janeiro survived the argument, and so did the tree. In 2011 researchers from the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro measured its trunk, a buttressed, hollow mass over ten metres round at the base, and used a dendrometric method built for exactly this kind of ancient, ring-less wood to put its age at roughly 2,850 years. At the time, press called it the oldest tree in Portugal. That title has since moved to two other olives dated by the same method, one in Abrantes at around 3,350 years and one in Vidigueira at over 3,700, so this one is no longer the record holder, only one of the country's oldest confirmed and independently certified trees. It stands in the Covina neighbourhood of Loures, beside the ruins of Pirescoxe Castle, in what survives of an old olive grove that has otherwise given way to houses. A small square with information panels now marks the spot, the tree that nearly lost an argument with a road, and the reason the road bent instead. This is a genuine day trip from Lisbon rather than an in-town stop, about half an hour by train and on foot from the centre.