Studena, a village in Svilengrad Municipality in south-eastern Bulgaria, keeps a pedunculate oak in the field at its entrance that local tradition puts at about 350 years old. It is named for Grandpa Kolyo, the landowner who used to rest under it. The oak won Bulgaria's Tree with Roots contest for 2021 and finished 14th in European Tree of the Year 2022. It stands on private farmland and is seen from the road.
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Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur) · 350 years · Studena
Grandpa Kolyo used to rest under this oak, and the village of Studena named it after him. He was Nikola Dimitrov Angelov, and the field where it stands, at the entrance to the village on the road from Svilengrad, was his.
Local tradition gives the tree about 350 years and says it is a survivor of the dense forest that once covered this corner of south-eastern Bulgaria. That is tradition rather than record. The age comes from the village and from the contest entry, and nobody has published a girth or a height. If you have stood beside it with a tape measure, tell us.
It is visible from the whole village and from the road in. In 2019 a cross was put up nearby. Two years later the oak won Bulgaria's Tree with Roots contest for 2021 with 737 votes, and in 2022 it represented the country in European Tree of the Year, finishing 14th with 24,431 votes.
The field is private farmland. See the oak from the roadside, which is where the village sees it from too.