The Great Plane of Tata (Tatai nagy platán)

In 2015 the great plane of Tata finished second in Europe, about 6,300 votes short of the winner. The year before, it had been named Hungary's Tree of the Year. It came from Versailles. The Esterházy family, who held Tata, brought it from France, around 1794 by the town's own account, and it stands by the lake near the southwestern gate of their castle. Around 2014 the town and Hungary's tree of the year site both put it at 232 years; a 2022 article says about 240. It is 19 metres tall and 6.5 metres round. It carries an old injury. Lightning opened the trunk, and the wound was filled with concrete. Both official pages now say the concrete harms the tree but cannot be taken out without harming it more, so the plug stays and the plane grows on around it. The tree has a literary life too. The local author Mátyás Pribojszky wrote a fairy tale about it, The Platán King, after suffering a stroke. Today it shades Kastély tér on the shore of the Öreg-tó, with benches underneath and a café called the Platán beside it. One caveat on the name: the European contest listed it as a London plane, while the town and the Hungarian contest both call it an oriental plane. We follow the two Hungarian sources; if you know the tree, tell us which is right.