There is a small fence around the 1,700-year-old Farga de l’Arión. One unique piece of natural heritage is a 1,700-year-old olive tree outside the small town of Ulldecona in Catalonia,Spain. It may be the oldest olive tree in the world according to scientific dating.
Researchers at the Technical University of Madrid have definitively dated the Farga de l’Arión, as this massive tree is known, to the early fourth century using advanced laser-based techniques.
Experts say,during this time, Britain, Gaul, and Spain were ruled by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. The Farga variety, an heirloom olive that is native to the region, makes up the majority of the old trees here.
According to media reports,Farga olive trees were either uprooted and sold elsewhere as garden ornaments or felled and replaced with higher-yielding kinds until quite recently. Still, the majority of millenary trees continue to provide fruit. The Mediterranean diet’s rising popularity and consumers’ increased curiosity about the origins of food have created new prospects for olive oil entrepreneurs.
