What is the oldest tree in Lukavice?
The Lukavický dub is an oak on the open ground of a former fortress at Lukavice, its trunk exceeding seven metres round and estimated at nearly 800 years old. In 2024 it was voted Czech Tree of the Year.
The oak grows where a fortress belonging to the local Auersberg estate once stood, in what was its courtyard. Before the First World War the estate's own management reportedly tried to kill the tree by stripping dozens of cartloads of soil away from its roots; it survived regardless, and stands today at more than seven metres round and 31 metres tall. Eight centuries of standing still has turned it into more than a tree: it now carries its own fungi, beetles and bats, most needing wood that has been dead a long time inside a trunk that is still alive. It has been legally protected since 1990, and in 2024 the country voted it Czech Tree of the Year. The sources call it simply dub, oak, without naming the species further; if you can tell a pedunculate from a sessile by the acorn stalks, tell us which this is. It stands on open community ground in the village of Lukavice, free at any time.
One of Lukavice's trees also appears in The Thickest Trunks We Have Measured, a themed collection spanning several cities.