The large-leaf linden from Kopčany near Skalica will represent Slovakia in the European tree of 2019 competition. It is 235 years old and grows near an old church from the Great Moravia era.
“On the edge of the village of Kopčany, in a quiet meadow, there is an old lime and church. They protect each other and have withstood the weather for more than two hundred years. The church is from the 9th - 10th century and is one of the oldest buildings of the Great Moravian period of Slovakia.
They create a typical sacred couple for our country - the lime with its roots protects the forgotten stories of the ancestors from the Great Moravian Empire and completes the unspoken atmosphere of this archaeologically and culturally significant place,” described Milan Hronec of the Ekopolis Foundation, as quoted by the SITA newswire.
The winning tree will receive financial support for its expert treatment or the planting of other trees in its surroundings.
Its competitors are other unique trees from all of Europe, such as the 500-year-old linden from Croatia, an oak growing between two lines of highways in the Netherlands or an unusually shaped oak from France.
Together, 15 trees are competing in the ninth year of the European competition. The survey is organized by the Environmental Partnership Association, of which Ekopolis Foundation is a member.
The aim of the survey is to highlight interesting old trees as important natural and cultural riches that people should protect. It is possible to support the linden from Kopčany until the end of February at www.treeoftheyear.org.
