The Chestnut of the Hundred Horses

The Chestnut of the Hundred Horses is a multi-millennial chestnut tree, located in the Etna Park in the territory of the municipality of Sant'Alfio (CT) in whose civic coat of arms is depicted. The chestnut, considered to be the most famous and largest in Italy and the subject of one of the oldest acts of naturalistic protection - if not the first of its kind - in Sicily, has been studied by various botanists and visited by many famous people in past eras . Its history merges with the legend of a mysterious queen and a hundred knights with their steeds, who, it is said, found shelter there from a storm. In 1982 the State Forestry Corps included it in the Italian heritage of green monuments, with 22,000 trees of considerable interest, and highlighted among the only 150 of exceptional historical or monumental value.