The Guardian Oak of Víska
Víska
On 7 August 2010 this oak stood in the way of a flood and held. The Smědá broke its banks that night and came down through Víska carrying whole trees, and the oak caught them against its trunk and kept the jam out of the houses below. Local accounts credit it with saving a couple and their dog as well. Three years later the country voted it Tree of the Year, and in 2014 it placed fifth in Europe. Locally it is Dub ochránce, the Guardian Oak. It is not an ancient tree. Roughly 150 years, which is early middle age for a pedunculate oak, 455 centimetres round and 20 metres tall. Nobody has dated it more precisely than that, so if you know when it went in, tell us. Arborists pruned the crown in September 2014 to keep it sound, which is what a village does for a tree it owes something to. It stands at the southern edge of the settlement, beside the road and the footbridge over the same river. There is a bench under it now and a board explaining what happened. Both arrived after the water did.
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Getting there
Southern edge of the Víska settlement, beside the road and footbridge over the Smědá river, Višňová municipality, Liberec District, Liberec Region
You can recognise it by the trunk, 455 centimetres round, with a bench and an information board at its foot. It stands on its own at the southern edge of Víska, right beside the bridge over the Smědá.
No rail; reached by local bus to Višňová/Víska (Liberec District) or by car, then a short walk to the village's southern edge.
In fruit
September to October: acorns drop, and a good mast year buries the ground in them
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from. The story was written with AI from these sources, and readers who know the tree correct it.