The “Old Man of the Carpathians” is 900 years old in the papers and about 560 by radiocarbon dating. The oldest dated oak in Romania stands 190 kilometres to the north.

The centuries-old tree nearest to you

Press the button and the page looks up, on your phone or laptop, the nearest trees above the legal girth threshold for their species. Your position never leaves your device. If you would rather not share it, pick a county. The map filters apply here too.

Distances are straight-line. Trees on pastures and in forests have no address; take the coordinates with you.

The oldest trees in Romania: what is known about their age

The page now has 31 profiles: the nine already presented and 22 trees added after the documentary research completed in September 2026. Ten have ages estimated through radiocarbon dating, eight of them also on the map; the other two, the Calafat elm and the Emperor's Beech, are not in the map database. For the others we say whether the age comes from a registry, a local tradition or no published estimate exists. The profiles keep cases where a tree has died, its current condition is unknown, or sources disagree. The old chestnuts of Baia Mare remain off the map: they are a 500-hectare reserve, not one individual tree.

The Cajvana oak

Cajvana, Suceava county · Arbori Remarcabili

Girth	11.11 m (2015)
Age	around 810 years radiocarbon dating
Species	pedunculate oak (Quercus robur)
Getting there	In town, in a public spot, fenced; Cajvana is about 30 kilometres west of Suceava, on county road DJ 178D.

The oldest dated oak in Romania and one of the thickest in Europe. The town's legend ties it to Stephen the Great, said to have halted under it in 1476; an older legend says it was planted over the mass grave of the men killed in the Tatar invasion of 1241. Radiocarbon dating published in 2011 found a calibrated age of about 735 years for the oldest wood sample from the hollow; allowing for the wood lost to the centre of the trunk, the tree would be roughly 810 years old and would have sprouted around the year 1200. The trunk is hollow, with dead branches and a fence around it.

• Pătruț et al., „AMS radiocarbon dating of the very large pedunculate oak of Cajvana”, Studia UBB Chemia 56(1), 2011
• Fișa arborelui pe Arbori Remarcabili (nr. 90)
• Cajvana, Wikipedia în română

Horea's oak

Țebea, Baia de Criș commune, Hunedoara county · Arbori Remarcabili

Girth	9.90 m, measured on the concrete casing of the trunk
Age	around 800 years at its death, in 2005 radiocarbon dating
Species	pedunculate oak (Quercus robur), although it is called a sessile oak
Getting there	In the Heroes' Cemetery (the Pantheon of the Moți) at Țebea, on national road DN76 between Brad and Vața de Jos; open access at any time.

Under this tree, in 1784, Horea called the Moți to revolt; Avram Iancu's grave is 15 metres away. It is a listed historic monument. Its decline began in the 1890s, when bricks for the new church were stored beside its roots; in 1924 it was bound with steel hoops, and in 1947 the trunk was almost entirely encased in cement, sculpted to imitate bark. It died in a storm in 2005, and the cemented trunk still stands. The oldest radiocarbon-dated wood sample has a calibrated age of about 580 years; allowing for the wood lost from the centre of the trunk, the tree would have been around 800 years old.

• Pătruț et al., „Radiocarbon dating of the historic oak of Țebea, Romania”, Studia UBB Chemia 55(1), 2010
• Gorunul lui Horea, Wikipedia în română
• Fișa arborelui pe Arbori Remarcabili (nr. 4699)

Eminescu's lime

Copou Park, Iași

Girth	around 4 m at the level of the supports; split, propped trunk
Age	around 540 years (estimate from wood cores, 2013) or 458 years (tables of the Iași environmental protection agency) estimate
Species	silver lime (Tilia tomentosa)
Getting there	In Copou Park, beside the poet's bust and the Mihai Eminescu Museum; open access.

The best-known monument tree in Romania, in whose shade the poet is said to have written in the 1870s. A storm split it in 1953; it has stood on metal supports since, was treated in 1990 and 2014, and survives through a rare phenomenon: adventitious roots grown through the rotted trunk down into the ground. Its age has not been radiocarbon-dated. A 2013 assessment by the biologist Ionel Lupu, on two wood cores, estimated 540 years (± 3%); the Iași environmental agency's tables give 458. It has been on the county's list of protected trees since 1994.

• Teiul lui Eminescu, Wikipedia în română
• Mediafax, „Teiul lui Eminescu din Iași, punct major de atracție turistică”, 2018

Avram Iancu's oak

Avram Iancu Park, Blaj, Alba county

Girth	6.40 m
Age	“over 600 years” in local tradition; from its girth, 250–500 years estimate
Species	pedunculate oak (Quercus robur)
Getting there	In Avram Iancu Park in the centre of Blaj, the former garden of the Metropolitan Castle; open access.

In the former garden of the Metropolitan Castle at Blaj. The name dates from after 1849: Avram Iancu and Bishop Alexandru Sterca-Șuluțiu are said to have talked for days in its shade. According to local tradition the oak is over 600 years old and was already standing when the Treaty of Blaj was concluded in 1687; at 6.40 metres in girth, the growth rate used on this page gives it between 250 and 500 years, but the age has not been confirmed by dating. It is a natural monument.

• Stejarul lui Avram Iancu din Blaj, Wikipedia în română

Cuza's oak

Vorona forest, Botoșani county

Girth	no public measurement
Age	“over 500 years”, local estimate estimate
Species	oak
Getting there	By forest road, from the Botoșani–Vorona county road or from the “monasteries' road” between Vorona Monastery and the Vorona Hermitage.

In a clearing less than 2 kilometres from Vorona Monastery, with a legend about Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, said to have rested under it. Declared a natural monument, with an information board and a rest area, on a themed trail of the Botoșani forest directorate. The age of “over 500 years” is a local estimate; there is no published dating.

• Stejarul lui Cuza din Vorona, Wikipedia în română

The Fat Tree (Pomul gros)

Pomiculturii Street, Timișoara

Girth	4.47 m
Age	around 345 years, if it was planted in 1681, as is assumed estimate
Species	plane tree
Getting there	On Pomiculturii Street; open access, from the street.

Regarded as Timișoara's oldest tree, it stands on a neighbourhood street, with a yellow fence around it. It is said to have been planted around 1681, when the city was under Ottoman rule; the lamp-oil cart used to stop beside it, and there was a well. It is 21 metres tall and 4.47 metres in girth. In 2011 it reached the final of Romania's “Tree of the Year” contest.

• Pomul gros, Wikipedia în română

Eminescu's Linden in Blaj

Hula hill, Stejarului Street, near DJ107, Alba

Girth	4.7 m
Age	no verifiable published age no published age
Species	small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata)
Status	alive in a verified photograph dated 2 August 2023; 2026 phytosanitary condition unknown
Protection	inventoried and protected by Alba County Council Decision no. 27/11.06.1999, according to the municipal cultural strategy
Getting there	public landmark on the edge of Blaj; the coordinate is approximate and should be confirmed at the trunk

The tree is documented at Hula hill, Stejarului Street, near DJ107. We found no verifiable published age estimate for this tree. Local tradition says Mihai Eminescu stopped here in spring 1866 on reaching Blaj; the association does not prove the tree's age. The latest documented condition is: alive in a verified photograph dated 2 August 2023; 2026 phytosanitary condition unknown. The sources mention the following protection status: inventoried and protected by Alba County Council Decision no. 27/11.06.1999, according to the municipal cultural strategy. The 4.70 m girth is reported at the base of the trunk, not at 1.30 m; no published age determination was found. The profile keeps the available dimensions, reported age and source limits separate. For a visit, the sources say: public landmark on the edge of Blaj; the coordinate is approximate and should be confirmed at the trunk.

• Cei mai bătrâni arbori din România
• Strategia de dezvoltare culturală a municipiului Blaj
• Monumente ale naturii: Teiul lui Eminescu de la Blaj

Căpeni Elm

by the bridge over the Baraolt stream north of Căpeni, at a former watermill site, Covasna · Arbori Remarcabili

Girth	7.3 m (2015)
Age	about 300 years; dendrological confirmation is attributed to two forestry engineers, but no method is published estimate
Species	European white elm (Ulmus laevis)
Status	alive in a published visit from September 2023; a large limb had fallen and been cut
Getting there	beside a road and stream; generally walkable, but the exact parcel should be checked

The tree is documented at by the bridge over the Baraolt stream north of Căpeni, at a former watermill site. The recorded age: about 300 years; dendrological confirmation is attributed to two forestry engineers, but no method is published. Romania's Tree of the Year 2011 and runner-up in European Tree of the Year 2012; in April 2012 it was named the Antal Jenő Memorial Tree. The published age is an estimate; the source does not provide a complete biological dating method. The latest documented condition is: alive in a published visit from September 2023; a large limb had fallen and been cut. The registry labels it field elm/Ulmus campestris, while the 2012 forestry paper identifies it as Ulmus laevis. The profile keeps the available dimensions, reported age and source limits separate. For a visit, the sources say: beside a road and stream; generally walkable, but the exact parcel should be checked.

• Cei mai bătrâni arbori din România
• Ulmul (Ulmus laevis Pall.) excepţional din localitatea Căpeni
• Arborii remarcabili din România – nr. 22

Leliceni Linden

Leliceni, by the village church, Harghita

Girth	3.9 m (2011)
Age	about 300 years in the 2013 age-estimation study; the traditional roughly 500-year figure was not confirmed by that study estimate
Species	small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata)
Status	alive in 2011 sources; no recent verifiable phytosanitary assessment was found
Protection	press citing the county register states that it was declared a natural monument in 1992
Getting there	in the village by the church; coordinate is approximated from a Commons photograph geotag

The tree is documented at Leliceni, by the village church. The recorded age: about 300 years in the 2013 age-estimation study; the traditional roughly 500-year figure was not confirmed by that study. It won European Tree of the Year in 2011. The published age is an estimate; the source does not provide a complete biological dating method. The latest documented condition is: alive in 2011 sources; no recent verifiable phytosanitary assessment was found. The sources mention the following protection status: press citing the county register states that it was declared a natural monument in 1992. The 500-year figure circulated in the competition and press; the dedicated 2013 study gives an estimate around 300 years. The profile keeps the available dimensions, reported age and source limits separate. For a visit, the sources say: in the village by the church; coordinate is approximated from a Commons photograph geotag.

• Cei mai bătrâni arbori din România
• Estimating age of Leliceni linden tree (Tilia cordata Mill.) declared the tree of 2011
• Un tei de 500 de ani din Leliceni, declarat Arborele Anului în Europa

How old a tree really is

Old trunks are hollow, so the innermost rings, the oldest, rotted away long ago and cannot be counted. Three routes remain. The first is legend: “Stephen the Great rested under it”, so it is 550 years old. The second is a rule of thumb: a young oak adds roughly two and a half centimetres of girth a year, less and less as it ages, so a nine-metre trunk “would be” 400 or 700 years old, depending on the rate you pick. The third is the laboratory: pieces of wood are taken from the deepest point of the hollow, the carbon-14 left in them is measured to date the wood in the samples, and the age of the wood that has rotted away at the centre of the trunk is then estimated.

The third route has been applied to four Romanian oaks and gave results that contradict the first two. The Mercheașa oak, 10.16 metres around, is around 560 years old: it grew fast, on an open pasture, with water and light. The Cajvana oak, at 11.11 metres, is around 810. The Țebea oak, under which Horea called the Moți to revolt in 1784, was around 800 when it died in 2005. The Botoșana oak, in the garden of a house 3 kilometres from Cajvana, has an estimated age of 645 years, give or take 50. A thick trunk points to a tree that has lived well rather than one that has lived long.

That is why the “indicative age” filter on this page is cautious and wide. For every tree we compute a range from its girth and the growth rate of its species, and the filter uses the low end of that range. “Probably over 300 years” means that even growing fast, in good conditions, the tree would still need three centuries to reach the girth measured. For the eight dated trees we use the radiocarbon estimate.

The same carbon-14 dates people too. Nuclear tests in the 1950s and 60s nearly doubled the amount in the air, and the mark stayed in the body: the middle of your eye is made of carbon from the air of the year you were born.

What a remarkable tree is, in law

Since April 2023 Romania has Law no. 97/2023 on the protection of remarkable trees. A tree outside the national forest estate, towns and villages included, is protected if it meets one of three conditions: it reaches the minimum girth for its species in the law's annex, measured 1.30 metres above ground on the uphill side; it is at least 160 years old, established from documents and measurements at registration; or it is tied to an event, a personality or a local legend. The law does not apply to private properties inside built-up areas. Felling a protected tree is allowed only if it is completely dead, uprooted by nature or dangerous with no other remedy, after an assessment and with the Forest Guard's approval. The law requires a public Catalogue of Remarkable Trees kept by the national agency for protected areas; the implementing rules appeared only in June 2026.

On this map, 3,743 of the 5,703 trees have a girth above the annex threshold for their species. The threshold is only a size condition; trees inside forests and on private properties in built-up areas stay outside the law. According to Europa Liberă, the amendment that would have included forest trees was withdrawn in 2022, after the Government's negative opinion.

Method and limits

The dots come from the public database of the Arbori Remarcabili platform, started in 2015 by Tibor Hartel, Viorel Arghiuș and Réka Tamás with the Agri-Cultura-Natura Transylvaniae Association; the first tree was measured at the launch by Prince Charles, now King Charles III. We used the data available on 14 September 2026: 5,703 trees with coordinates and girth. For the 2,364 trees with a trunk girth of at least 4.5 metres we also read the individual record, which is where the “where it stands” column comes from; for the others the setting is left unspecified. Every row links to the original record, with photographs, on arboriremarcabili.ro, and any missing tree can be added there.

County and administrative locality were assigned from the coordinates, using the administrative boundaries from geo-spatial.org (2025 edition). The place name typed by the volunteer is shown separately, as recorded. Girths are those reported by volunteers, with a tape, at 1.30 metres; for multi-stemmed or leaning trunks the measurement can differ from one person to another. The indicative age range comes from dividing the girth by two values of annual growth, taken as averages over the tree's whole life: 1.3–2.5 cm for oak, beech, lime, ash and other hardwoods; 2.5–5 cm for poplar, willow, plane and other fast-growing species; 0.9–1.8 cm for hornbeam, pear, apple, yew and other slow-growing species; 1.1–2.2 cm for conifers. The rates follow the order of magnitude in the British Forestry Commission's guidance on veteran trees (White, 1998) and the reference tables of the Arbori Remarcabili platform; they are indicative, as the four dated oaks show.

Legal thresholds are those in the annex to Law no. 97/2023, by species; for species the law does not name we used the 300 cm threshold for exotic trees. The law applies only outside the forest estate and does not cover private properties in built-up areas, so a tree “above the threshold” in a forest or in a yard is not necessarily protected by it. Positions are as recorded by volunteers and can be a few tens of metres from the trunk. Trees on private land are visited only with the owner's consent.

Sources

• Arbori Remarcabili din România — harta și baza de date a arborilor bătrâni (instantaneu din 14 septembrie 2026)
• Arbori Remarcabili — instrucțiuni de măsurare și reperele de mărime pe specii
• Legea nr. 97/2023 privind protecția arborilor remarcabili, Monitorul Oficial nr. 320 din 18 aprilie 2023
• Ministerul Mediului — „Arborii remarcabili ai României vor fi protejați printr-un catalog național public”, 21 mai 2026
• Normele metodologice de aplicare a Legii nr. 97/2023, Monitorul Oficial nr. 476 din 8 iunie 2026
• Europa Liberă — „Povestea fascinantă a arborilor remarcabili din România, promovați de Regele Charles. De ce legea care îi apără nu a mers până la capăt”, 1 iunie 2023
• Pătruț, A. et al. — AMS radiocarbon dating of the very large pedunculate oak of Cajvana, Studia UBB Chemia 56(1), 2011
• Pătruț, A. et al. — Old ages of the Mocod and Rafaila poplars assessed by AMS radiocarbon dating, Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 294, 2013
• Pătruț, A. et al. — Radiocarbon dating of the historic oak of Țebea, Romania, Studia UBB Chemia 55(1), 2010
• Pătruț, A. et al. — Radiocarbon investigation of the pedunculate oak of Botoșana, Romania, Studia UBB Chemia 63(4), 2018
• Pătruț, A. et al. — AMS radiocarbon dating of the large pedunculate oak of Mercheașa, Romania, Studia UBB Chemia 66(3), 2021 (figură pe ResearchGate, nu pagina articolului)
• Pătruț, A. et al. — Radiocarbon dating of the old ash of Aiton, Romania, Studia UBB Chemia 63(3), 2018
• Pătruț, A. et al. — Radiocarbon investigation of two old elms from Romania, Studia UBB Chemia 67(1), 2022
• Pătruț, A. et al. — Radiocarbon dating of the Emperor's Beech from Romania, Studia UBB Chemia 67(4), 2022
• White, J. — Estimating the age of large and veteran trees in Britain, Forestry Commission Information Note 12, 1998
• geo-spatial.org / ANCPI — limitele unităților administrativ-teritoriale (ro_admin_lau_polygon, 2025), CC BY-SA 4.0
• Centrul Național de Informare și Promovare Turistică Arad — Parcul dendrologic din Ineu
• Agricultura, nr. 35, 1973 — mențiunea tisei din parcul orașului Ineu
• Aurel Dragoș, Arealul Ineu — repere istorice, 2021
• Ghid turistic al județului Arad — denumirea locală «arborele lui Mihai Viteazul»