Stelmužė is a village of a few houses in Zarasai district, in the north-eastern corner of Lithuania near the Latvian border. It has two things worth the drive, and they stand a few steps apart: the oldest surviving wooden church in the country, built in the 17th century, and in the old manor park beside it, the oldest oak in Lithuania. The oak is a national monument in the literal sense, printed on coins and on stamps, and it is why anyone comes out this far.
0 of 1 visited in Stelmužė
Photo: Algimantas Navickas, Arnoldas Abramavičius, Gintautas Antanavičius, Arvydas Veik (CC BY-SA 4.0)
1
The Stelmužė Oak
Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur) · at least 1,500 years old, possibly as much as 2,000 · Stelmužė village, in the old manor park beside the wooden church
Restorers working on the trunk found a rifle and a human skeleton inside it, thought to belong to a French soldier left behind by Napoleon's retreat from Russia in 1812. The Stelmužė Oak is hollow enough to hide a man, and has been for a long time: the whole interior has rotted away, which is exactly why nobody can count its rings and nobody ever will.
The standing estimate is at least 1,500 years and possibly 2,000, making it the oldest oak in Lithuania and one of the oldest in Europe. Measured at its widest the trunk is 13 metres round; measured at chest height, the way foresters normally work, it is 9.58 metres. Both numbers are correct and they describe the same tree. It stands about 23 metres tall.
This is not a healthy oak and has not been for centuries. Fungi and moss have taken the outer wood, the crown is gone, and only side branches still carry leaves. A Czech arborist, Martin Němec, has monitored and maintained it since 2005 under a long-term plan; new supports went in during March 2021, and a branch came down at the end of that same month regardless.
Lithuania puts the tree on coins and stamps, and an oak raised from its acorns grows in the National Revival grove beside the birthplace of Jonas Basanavičius. It stands in the old manor park next to a 17th-century wooden church, the oldest in the country.
Read more and get directions →