He lived through the reign of Louis XIV, the French Revolution, Napoleon's empire and Sarkozy's presidency, and, incredibly, is still standing. It is the wonderful and ancient French oak found in Allouville-Bellefosse, in the Seine-Maritime department, a unique and particular tree, not only for its venerable age, but because two very small and characteristic chapels have been built inside it, one on the "ground" floor and another which is accessed via a spiral staircase that rotates around the trunk.
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He lived the reign of Louis XIV, the French Revolution, Napoleon's empire and Sarkozy's presidency, and, incredibly, it's still standing. It is the beautiful and ancient French oak found in Allouville-Bellefosse, in the department of Seine-Maritime, a unique and particular tree, not only for its venerable age, but because inside it they have been two very small and characteristic chapels were built, one on the ground floor and another which is accessed via a spiral staircase that rotates around the trunk.
Called in French chapel oak and in English Oak chapels , this sacred place was built inside the oak after that she was struck by lightning, which fell over 500 years ago, who created the crack inside the trunk. Interpreting this event as a divine sign, the curate of Alllouville decided to turn it into a church. For years, experts have been struggling to understand what was the exact age of the tree and, even if legend has it that it was planted in 911 for the birth of Normandy, almost all converge in attributing more than 800 years to it, which in any case makes it the oldest tree in all of France.
After covering all the cracks in the oak and aver built a small bell tower surmounted by an iron cross which rises above the foliage, a tower that no longer exists but appears in the engravings, the priest who built it decided to dedicate the internal part of the trunk to a chapel for Our Lady of Peace. 1,75 meters long, 1,17 meters wide and 2,28 high, the small room is paved and houses a wooden altar lit by two candles and a suspension lamp. Images of Santa Maria, San Giuseppe and San Francesco adorn the walls.
Become historical monument in 1932, Allouville oak measures 18 meters high in total, while his circumference reaches 15 meters. It is obviously empty inside, but the outer bark continues to grow, giving life to new branches and leaves every year, even though it has lately been showing signs of stress. There chapel is visited every year by over 50 thousand people, who come here not only out of curiosity, but also to pray in this place like thisì intimately connected to our mother earth.
