Located in the Gallic husbandry small town of Allouville - Bellefosse , this amazing oak tree is home to more than just timber vegetation and fauna : its hollow , thousand - year - old trunk serves as the base for two belittled chapels accessible via spiral stairway that surround the tree diagram .
This oak tree is the oldest known tree in France and many locals hypothecate that it actually date back to the Charlemagne ’s reign in the 8th hundred .
While scientists go steady the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree some 800 age , the tree diagram is a timeless symbol of Gallic long suit as it has stood steadfast throughout the Hundred Years War , The Black Death , Reformation , the Revolution , both World Wars , and the Napoleonic era .
Despite its bevy of functions today , the oak tree was n’t converted into a infinite for two chapels until the 1600s when it was strickle by lightning . A true approving in disguise , the lightning strike hollowed out the trunk and before long the charred Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree draw the attention of Abbot Du Détroit and settlement non-Christian priest Du Cerceau .
Soon , the cleric deemed it a providential tree diagram and thus decided to ramp up a shrine to the Virgin Mary in the holler . The adjoining staircases total in later years .
During the French Revolution , the Oak Chapel was vulnerable to the throngs of protesters who abominate the quondam way of the church . diamond in their desires to burn the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree down , the protesters were only end their candidacy after a local renamed the tree diagram the “ Temple of Reason . ”
Despite being endorse by terminal and shedding its beat bark for shingle , the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree still stands today . Nevertheless , a congregation proceed to cumulate twice a year for Mass and the tree is a popular pilgrimage for the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin in August .
