(4 Aug 2019) LEAD IN: Locals in a small Montenegrin port town claim their landmark olive tree is "significantly older than Christ." Aged almost 2,250 years old.
"Stara Maslina", as it's known, is now a popular tourist attraction and a protected natural site.
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For generations, this olive tree - named "Stara Maslina" - has been a sacred place for the residents of Bar, a small port town in southern Montenegro.
They've wed, mourned and celebrated under its weary, old branches.
Nowadays, the olive tree is a tourist attraction and a protected natural site, not because of its size, but because of its age.
Stara Maslina is thought to be almost 2,250 years old.
Visitors come to admire the 10-metre wide tree and its interwoven, knotted branches.
"The old olive really has been a sacred place for Bar over the centuries and (people) gathered around it," explains local journalist Zeljko Milovic, Journalist, editor of BARinfo portal.
"There is a vow that is passed to young residents that they must not pick a leaf or do anything else because their family will be cursed."
Locals say the olive tree was once privately-owned.
Its owner refused to sell it to Italian occupiers during the Second World War, who wanted to dig it up and transport it to Italy.
Instead, in 1957, post-war authorities put the tree under state protection and let an olive oil producing company take charge.
That all changed in 2003, says Milovic.
"The municipal authorities decided in 2003 that Primorka (company) can no longer own the old olive and they handed it over to the Bar cultural centre. It is really a logical outcome," he says.
"Couples still come to wed under the old olive tree crown, believing it would bring wealth and happiness. So, it (olive tree) still functions as a trademark of Bar and Montenegro."
Milovic claims the olive tree has helped bring peace among many Montenegro families over the centuries.
The patriarchal Balkan country is known for bloody family feuds that have left their mark on generations of its residents.
"There is always some story about the feuding families that would gather somewhere, this has not been the most important site, but it was the most well-known site where people gathered," he says.
"So it was normal that they should make up here. So, it worked like this that one family would come and then another, they talk and end the feud."
Proud locals recently sought scientific backing to their claims.
Cazim Alkovic, Head of Olive Breeders says in 2015 samples were sent to Istanbul University for analysis. They estimated the tree's main stem to be around 2,240 years old at the time.
A nearby plaque says Stara Maslina is believed to be the oldest olive tree in Europe.
"We got the results and it was confirmed that this olive is the oldest in our area, that it is the oldest among those that were tested and that, according to those estimates, it is today 2,244 years old," he says.
But what about its precious fruit?
Alkovic says they've made an olive oil using fruits picked solely from Stara Maslina.
He says Britain's Prince Charles was gifted a bottle of the precious olive oil during a trip to Montenegro in 2016.
"We produced olive oil solely from this olive tree, from a tree that is significantly older than Christ, 2,244 years (old), and we produced oil, we got food," says Alkovic.
"Can you imagine what it means to have food from a plant that is more than two millennia old?"
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