Description of the attraction
The chestnut of a hundred horses is a unique attraction of Sicily, located in the village of Sant Alfio on the eastern slope of Etna, 8 km from the volcano crater. Scientists consider this chestnut to be the largest and oldest in the world - it is from 2 to 4 thousand years old. And in the Guinness Book of Records, it is entered as a tree with a trunk of the largest girth: in 1780, the trunk circumference was almost 58 meters! The height of the tree is 22 meters. Despite the fact that the chestnut has three trunks 13, 20 and 22 meters high, they all have one common root.
This tree is mentioned several times in Italian poems and songs. Even the origin of its name has its own legend, according to which one day the queen, caught in a thunderstorm while hunting, took refuge under the crowns of a chestnut tree, along with a hundred knights accompanying her. The thunderstorm lasted until evening, and the whole retinue sat under a tree. Hence the romantic name - Chestnut of a Hundred Horses. It is not known for certain which queen we are talking about - perhaps it was Giovanna I of Aragon (1455 - 1517). According to another version - the English Empress Elizabeth, the third wife of Frederick II. Finally, some suggest that it is about the queen of Naples, Giovanna I (1328 - 1382), whose name is associated with the infamous Sicilian Vespers. But, most likely, all these legends are just a figment of the people's imagination.
About 400 meters from the Chestnut of a Hundred Horses, another chestnut grows, which is about a thousand years old - the Chestnut Ship, also called the Chestnut of Saint Agatha. This tree, according to some scientific evidence, is the second oldest and largest tree in Italy. Its trunk circumference is 20 meters, its height is 19 meters.
And in the vicinity of the village of Zafferana Etnea, on the eastern slope of Etna, you can see the stone oak Ilice di Carrino, which is also estimated to be a thousand years old. It has a trunk girth of 4 meters and a height of 19 meters.
