Navajas is a village in Castellon province, in the Comunitat Valenciana, and its tree stands in the middle of it, in the square named after it. The Olmo de Navajas is a field elm planted in 1636 by the settlers who arrived after the Moriscos were expelled, and it has been on the town's coat of arms since 1961. It has escaped the Dutch elm disease that killed most of Europe's old elms, and Spain voted it Tree of the Year in 2019.
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Olmo de Navajas
Field Elm (Ulmus minor) · planted 1636, about 390 years · Plaza del Olmo (Elm Square), village centre, Navajas
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.
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