Châtaignier de Pianello, l'Arbre à pain

Pianello

In the heart of the Castagniccia, that region of north-eastern Corsica where the chestnut was long the nourishing "bread tree" of whole villages, stands at Pianello a specimen beyond the norm. Aged eight hundred to a thousand years, its outsized trunk, bristling with burrs and spherical swellings, has a girth exceeding fifteen metres at the base for a height of only twelve metres, so much has the tree favoured thickness over height. This tortured silhouette, half plant, half animal, has earned it description as a fantastic creature, guardian and protector of the place. For centuries, its chestnut crop allowed the Corsicans to make flour, bread and polenta, and to fatten the pigs raised free-range in the chestnut groves. Even today, the old colossus shelters a discreet fauna in its cavities: woodpeckers, nuthatches, garden dormice, hornets and several species of bat, pipistrelles and noctules, find refuge in its dead wood. In 2014, this Corsican patriarch was elected Tree of the Year in the national competition organised by the association A.R.B.R.E.S, a consecration that has cast light on a whole side of island culture attached to this nourishing tree, today threatened by chestnut blight and ink disease.

Getting there : Village of Pianello, Castagniccia, Haute-Corse, about 40 km south of Bastia

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound