Bartek (tree)
ancient oak tree in Poland
The Bartek Oak (Polish: Dąb Bartek) is one of the oldest oak trees in Poland. It grows in Zagnańsk near Kielce in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains. Its age, previously estimated at up to 1200 years, has recently been established to be 686 years (in 2016), with a corer used to extract a sample for a ring count. An accurate count is impossible, as Bartek's interior has hollowed with age. There are several older trees in Poland, both oaks and yews (some over 1000 years old), yet none of them have matched Bartek's fame.
The 33.5-metre tall Bartek measures 970 cm at CBH (circumference at breast height) and 13.5 metres in girth at its base. Its crown spreads about 40 metres. Legend has it that King Casimir III (1310–1370) held court under Bartek and that King Jan III Sobieski rested under the oak on his way back from the Battle of Vienna (1683). He reputedly hid a Turkish sabre, an arquebus and a bottle of wine inside it to commemorate the victory.
The oak is still alive, but is in decline.
“Bartek (tree)” enters the record as ancient oak tree in Poland. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bartek, tree and ancient can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q790880. Authority coordinates are 50.983, 20.667. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1200, 2016, 1000 and 1310.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bartek (tree)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.