Guernica Oak.If only trees could tell stories. Their strength, endurance, and vast lifespans often make them eyewitnesses to history's most devastating dev·as·tate tr.v. dev·as·tat·ed, dev·as·tat·ing, dev·as·tates 1. To lay waste; destroy. 2. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark. horrors, but they silently take their secrets to the grave. The Guernica Oak was a historic tree that stood in front of Guernica's council building in the Basque region of Spain, having survived the infamously brutal 1937 bombing that inspired Picasso's masterpiece, "Guernica." The tree died in a 2004 heat wave. Look closely and you'll see a tiny oak tree with a faint shadow of an oak leaf Oak leaf may refer to
The tree was of great cultural significance to the Basque people The Basques (Basque: Euskaldunak) are an indigenous people[4] who inhabit parts of northeastern Spain and southwestern France. , being the third in a line of ceremonial Spanish Oaks spanning back to the 14th century. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The first oak gave shade to King Ferdinand Noun 1. King Ferdinand - the king of Castile and Aragon who ruled jointly with his wife Isabella; his marriage to Isabella I in 1469 marked the beginning of the modern state of Spain and their capture of Granada from the Moors in 1492 united Spain as one country; they and Queen Isabella Noun 1. Queen Isabella - the queen of Castile whose marriage to Ferdinand of Aragon in 1469 marked the beginning of the modern state of Spain; they instituted the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 and sponsored the voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1492 (1451-1504) as they swore oaths to uphold the Basque people's rights and privileges; the second is immortalized in a Wordsworth poem from 1810. After the third Guernica tree's death and removal in 2004, a fourth oak was planted in 2005 to keep the tradition alive. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion