- Place
- Molėtai District Municipality
- Region
- Aukštaitija
- Type
- state-protected veteran tree
- Address
- Alkūnai Forest, northeast of Alkūnai village, Joniškis elderate, Molėtai District
- Coordinates
- 55.10122, 25.54885
- Visit duration
- 20-40 minutes, longer when walking through the forest
- Best time
- dry conditions from spring to autumn; bare branches best reveal crown structure
Thick Oak, Great Oak, Storasis ąžuolas, Didysis ąžuolas
The 6.44-metre circumference was measured 1.3 metres above the ground
VLE identifies Alkūnai Oak as a pedunculate oak and gives precise dimensions: 30 metres high, 2 metres in diameter and 6.44 metres around the trunk at a height of 1.3 metres. The measurement height matters because the flared base would produce a different figure.
A large hollow opens low in the trunk, whose old form and crown are irregular rather than symmetrical. View it from a little distance instead of entering the cavity or touching fragile wood.
Protected since 1960
The tree has been protected since 1960. It entered the list of natural monuments of republican importance in 1987, was classed as a natural landscape object from 1999 to 2003 and has been a botanical natural heritage object since 2003. VLE also dates its natural-monument status to 2000.
The hollow, old bark and deadwood support insects, fungi, birds and bats. Conservation protects the whole living and decaying veteran organism, not an idealised appearance.
Sacred-place stories are recorded tradition, not a documented biography
VLE relates traditions that the oak and its setting were sacred and that people had seen Senelis Dievas, the Old God, and the Virgin Mary here. A holy picture hung by the tree, and people gathered for May devotions and evening socials until the Second World War. These are recorded traditions and memories, so they should be framed as stories rather than proven events.
The encyclopedia also records an account that someone tried to cut the oak for firewood before the First World War. Such details explain the tree's role in communal memory but do not prove an uninterrupted ancient sanctuary.
The exact coordinate is in the forest, not at a car park
The oak grows in Alkūnai Forest northeast of Alkūnai village. The coordinate marks the tree itself, not an official parking place; the final forest track and footpath vary with the season.
Park without blocking the road, keep off the trunk and roots, attach no ribbons and do not reach into the hollow. Avoid the old crown in stormy weather and show scale in photographs from a distance.
