The Zarzecze Plane Tree

Local legend says horses that died on the Dzieduszycki estate were buried at the foot of this plane tree, feed for the roots of something that was already old when the story started. Whether that is true or simply the kind of thing a Polish village tells about its biggest tree, the plane itself needs no legend to earn its size: 5.6 metres round, roughly 26 metres tall, growing dead centre of the romantic landscape park the family laid out around 1820 in front of their palace. Sources disagree on its age. The park's own history puts it near 300 years; a regional tourist board says 200. Neither is a ring count, so both stand on the page rather than one winning. What is better documented is what happened under it. Harvest feasts, dozynki, were reportedly held beneath the crown every year, and village women are remembered learning to read, sew and dance in its shade, an outdoor classroom nobody built on purpose. In 2017 the tree was entered into Poland's national Tree of the Year contest, a list that takes only a handful of trees a year. The palace survives as a municipal museum. Its plane tree, whichever age is correct, has already outlived the family that planted it.