The Sweet Chestnut of Caminho dos Frades

Portugal's forestry register puts this sweet chestnut at about 800 years old, and the local tree group GAAS calls it the oldest tree in the municipality. It has been protected as a tree of public interest since 1945. When the register last measured it, in 1989, the trunk was 9.6 metres round at chest height and 10.2 metres at the base. In February 2025 its crown was cut back to the trunk. GAAS, which puts its age at more than six hundred years, took the case to the public prosecutor, saying the forestry service had not approved the work and warning that the few young shoots left might not be enough to keep it alive. The estate's stated reason was that the trunk was cracking a wall and its heavy limbs were a risk. A nature guide who lives in Sintra photographed it for us in November 2026. The twisted, hollowed trunk rises above the estate wall, and green leafy growth stands above it. The tree is on private ground at Quinta do Castanheiro. You see it from Caminho dos Frades, the lane outside, which is where the pin stands.