Hundred Horse Chestnut

[1][2] Located on Linguaglossa road in Sant'Alfio, on the eastern slope of Mount Etna in Sicily[3] — only 8 km (5.0 mi) from the volcano's crater — it is generally believed to be 2,000 to 4,000 years old (4,000 according to botanist Bruno Peyronel from Turin).

In 1611 Antonio Filoteo[9] spoke of it, while in 1636, in "Il Mongibello", Pietro Carrera majestically described the trunk and the tree "... capable of accommodating thirty horses inside".

[13] A chestnut tree was so large that its branches formed an umbrella under which refuge was sought from the rain from thunder bolts and flashes of lightning by Queen Giuvanna with a hundred knights, when on her way to Mt Etna was taken by surprise by a fierce storm.

Another poet from Catania in Sicily, Giuseppe Villaroel (1889–1965), described the tree in the following sonnet (written in Italian): Dal tronco, enorme torre millenaria, i verdi rami in folli ondeggiamenti, sotto l'amplesso quèrulo dei venti, svettano ne l'ampiezza alta de l'aria.

And the tree – wooden Briareus – in the throes of the invisible fetters that bind it to the earth, strains its many limbs as a Sphinx hurling against the sky and against fate a voiceless threat sodden with war.