Bartek Oak

Bartek is a pedunculate oak standing in Zagnansk north of Kielce, with a trunk of about thirteen and a half metres in girth at the base and a height of about 33.5 metres, and it has been a national monument for a long time - protected since 1934, credited in tradition with a thousand years and with legends attaching Casimir the Great and Jan Sobieski to it. The age is the interesting correction: a core taken in 2016 for a ring count put it at 686 years, which still makes it one of the oldest oaks in Poland but is not the millennium of the guidebooks and the signs. The tree is in decline - it had fourteen main branches in 1829 and has eight now, and its hollow trunk was filled with limestone in the 1920s and with resin in the 1960s - and it is held up with steel props and cables, which is visible and is why it is still standing.

Highlights

• A thirteen-and-a-half-metre girth - a pedunculate oak 33.5 metres tall.
• A corrected age - 686 years by a 2016 ring count, not the traditional thousand.
• Visible life support - steel props, cables and treated cavities holding it up.
• Eight main branches - down from fourteen in 1829.

When to go

April to October; leaf cover from May. An hour.

Things to know

The thousand-year age is still on signs and in guidebooks and is not supported by the dating. The props and cables are prominent in every photograph. It is one tree - the visit is short. Parking is on the roadside.

Nearby

Kielce and Kadzielnia are south; the Swietokrzyskie mountains are east.

Key facts