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Covered by leaf: The Old Lady

  • Méhész Zsuzsa
    Every tree has a story. Or rather, we have stories to which the trees are silent witnesses. And if a treelives long enough, it can become a legend. In Spain, they believed that witches danced around thethousand-year-old holly oak of Lecina. People in the area still like to come out to the tree to celebrate -they have no longer to be afraid of the bonfire. Of course, where else could the oldest be but in theUnited States: the world's oldest living creature, a 4,800-year-old bristle cone pine, is a resident ofCalifornia's White Mountains, but its exact location is kept in secret. There are methuselah trees inHungary too and if you ask them, they will tell their stories to you. In our series, we will be talkingabout these trees.
    Every tree has a story. Or rather, we have stories to which the trees are silent witnesses. And if a treelives long enough, it can become a legend. In Spain, they believed that witches danced around thethousand-year-old holly oak of Lecina. People in the area still like to come out to the tree to celebrate -they have no longer to be afraid of the bonfire. Of course, where else could the oldest be but in theUnited States: the world's oldest living creature, a 4,800-year-old bristle cone pine, is a resident ofCalifornia's White Mountains, but its exact location is kept in secret. There are methuselah trees inHungary too and if you ask them, they will tell their stories to you. In our series, we will be talkingabout these trees.

    The Old Lady

    The visit of the Old Lady is not Dürrenmatt's drama but taking the bicycle and cycling to the 600-person town of Cégénydányád in the blink of an eye. We visit the Old Lady, not she visits us. We shouldn’t startfrom Sopron, because the journey from there would be a bit long, of course. But there are several argumentsin favour of cycling in the Upper Tisza region: in the Northern Great Plain you can cycle along the excellentcycle paths that have been built in many places along the embankments of the Szamos and other riverswithout uphills. You can do this in a natural environment, parallel to rivers and floodplain forests. Our path iscrossed at most by hares, deer and pheasants. And in the meantime, we can find many smaller - and bigger -miracles. The Old Lady is a nearly two-hundred-year-old methuselah sycamore tree of the Castle Park ofCégénydányád.

    The pleasure of a Baron

    The park's founder, Baron Zsigmond Kende, was fond of the beautiful gardens, although the former area hasshrunk significantly. It's still full of special and interesting plants, birdwatching, a drinking trough withsquirrels. He developed the 43 hectares of land with a unique taste, expertise and care: he gained plants ofwhich there were only one or very few in Hungary. And how the 43 hectares became 16 - because that's thesize of the area today - is a bit of a sad story. There is nationalization, abandoned property, specialities cutdown for firewood, flooding. The Castle Park of Cégénydányád is one of the most beautiful, wild castleparks in the Great Hungarian Plain, which offers something special every month: in February, the yellowwinter aconite breaks through the snow in groups. Later, snowflakes appear, but you can also enjoy thecopper beeches, fern and jasmine. It is home to many rare and protected plants and birds. But the absolutestar of the garden is the monumental maple sycamore. Its appearance is surprising even if you know you arelooking for a methuselah tree.

    Supported

    You can walk freely into the castle garden: the enormous tree is behind the Kölcse-Kende castle. It wasplanted by the lord of the house in the 1800s: Zsigmond Kende. Jackdaws and bats are squatting in theirholes, the tawny owl is hooting on its branches, the black woodpecker is knocking on its bark. Its wide, stoutbranches are protected with supports to make them last as long as possible. This place is one centres of theHortobágy National Park, where rangers are happy to show you the hidden treasures.The survivor, almostforty metres tall, has become a symbol of the village and has become everyone’s favourite. Anyone whovisits here is sure to have a photo of the tree on his/her memory card. With a circumference of 724 cm, it

    “The worker’s hand creates...”Where there's a castle park, there can be a castle - or so the Pooh said. In Cégénydányád, not only the OldLady and the protected English Park are spectacular but also the Kölcsey-Kende Castle is worth a visit. Theneoclassical building is now a museum. On its facade, was carved the poem of the most famous member of the family, the poet Ferenc Kölcsey. The building houses a permanent exhibition on several topics.

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