Some thing about OLIVE TREE

1500 years old olive tree from Kaštel Stafilic near Split (Croatia)
Specifically, for Dalmatia and Split, olive has not only some kind of generally acceptable status for its positive possibility of use in cooking, medicine and various religious ceremonies (baptisms, the last anointing). In Dalmatia and Split, the olive has a cult status and is one of the most important symbols, which can be seen not only in everyday application, which is inevitable in our country, but in everyday conversations, songs of all genres, symbols, names of countless institutions and restaurants and even and the countless tattoos. But perhaps the most famous olive is “The Olive” which is located in the kindergarten, 7 kilometers from Split in Kastel Stafilic. This olive is an exceptional cultural monument and is over 1500 years old and it is believed that it was growing there ever since the arrival of the Croats on the Adriatic Sea in the 7th century. In the wider basin of our region today, there is not this sort of olives any more, and it is assumed that it was brought from Southern Italy or Greece. The assumption is that the Roman soldiers brought olive seeds on their farms in the Claudian settlement Siculi, which was placed in the wider area of Resnik and Kastela. This “celebrity Olive” has a trunk circumference of 6 meters, diameter of crown 22 m and is 10 m high. She was declared as a Monument of nature, by the municipality of town Kastela in 1990, and it is considered as the possibility that this olive tree entres to the list of world natural and cultural heritage in UNESCO. Unfortunately, the central part of the olive tree is dying it is conducted intensive rehabilitation controlled by renowned experts. The preservation of this rare monument, which unites nature and history is important for the culture and image of Dalmatia, as for fostering traditions and to preserve natural areas of our country.