Dutch elm disease killed most of Europe's great elms in the twentieth century. It never touched the Olmo de Navajas, which has stood in the village square since a man named Roque Pastor planted it in 1636. The date is the point of the tree. The Moriscos were expelled from Spain in 1609, and the elm was planted by the settlers who came to Navajas after them, as a symbol of the new community holding together. The village took the idea seriously. The square is named after the tree, and the tree has been on the town's coat of arms since a decree of 1961. The village's markets, festivals and bullfights still happen around its feet. It stands on a raised circular stone platform about seven metres across and 1.4 metres high, right beside the town hall, and it has grown to more than six metres round. Its height is less agreed: one source measured 13.87 metres, two others say 19. Fame arrived late and in small, official doses. A Spanish postal cancellation featured it in 2002, a ONCE lottery ticket in 2011, and in 2019 Spain voted it the country's Tree of the Year, sending it on to represent Spain in the European contest. Nearly four hundred years after Roque Pastor dug the hole, it is still the centre of the village.
Plaza del Olmo, next to the town hall, Navajas, Castellon province, Comunitat Valenciana You can recognise it easily: a single elm more than six metres round, on a raised round stone platform about seven metres across. It stands in the Plaza del Olmo, right beside the town hall.
Free. Stands on a raised circular stone platform in the town's main square, right beside the ayuntamiento (town hall); Camino del Cid's own visitor page says the plaza is reachable directly by car and open to all, no restriction of any kind, and it hosts the village's markets, festivals and bullfighting events, so it is in continuous public use rather than roped off.
Navajas has its own station on the Cercanias Valencia line C-5 (Zaragoza-Sagunto railway), but the line runs a slow, sparse regional service (about three trains a day) and the town is well beyond a 30-minute ride from Valencia; as of the time of this pass the Sagunto-Caudiel stretch is reported suspended for engineering works with a replacement bus. About 47km north of Valencia (published) by road; treated as its own place rather than a Valencia day trip.