Chinar Tree in Ohrid: The Historic Old Plane Tree

Standing in Kruševo Republic Square at the northern threshold of Ohrid's Old Bazaar, the Old Plane Tree (Platanus orientalis), known locally as Činar or Chinarot, is one of the city's most prominent living landmarks. The name derives from the Ottoman Turkish and Persian word chenar, referring to the Oriental plane tree. With scientific and historical age estimates ranging from 600 to more than 1,100 years, this massive natural monument has served as a central fixture of local life across multiple eras.\n\n## Legends and Civic History\n\nLocal tradition credits the planting of the tree to Saint Clement of Ohrid around 893 AD, closely connecting the site with the medieval Ohrid Literary School. Throughout centuries of Ottoman rule, the plane tree developed as a focal commercial and social landmark within the trade network of the Old Bazaar. Located across the pavement from the 1573 Ali Pasha Mosque and near the Zeynel Abedin Pasha Mosque, the tree historically marked the convergence between Ohrid's lakeside Christian quarters and its Ottoman Islamic administrative and trading districts. Historical records document that the tree's trunk circumference once exceeded 18 to 20 meters before its core naturally hollowed.\n\n## The Hollow Trunk Businesses\n\nBy the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the hollow within the trunk had expanded to remarkable proportions. Rather than remaining unused, the cavernous interior was converted into commercial premises. It initially functioned as an operational barber shop where local patrons received haircuts within the wood. In later years, the cavity was converted into a miniature tavern and café, serving traditional Turkish coffee directly from inside the tree.\n\n## Decay and Dendrological Revitalization\n\nThe tree received formal legal protection as a Monument of Nature in 1967. However, mid-20th-century preservation methods inadvertently threatened its survival; municipal workers packed the hollow with concrete, shingles, and wire netting, which trapped moisture and accelerated fungal rot within the wood. The structure suffered further damage in 2012 when heavy winter snow caused major branch breakage. In late 2020, the Municipality of Ohrid completed a scientific dendrological revitalization that carefully removed the suffocating concrete fillings, treated the decayed wood, and installed exterior mechanical support pillars to reinforce the surviving canopy.\n\n## Atmosphere at Kruševo Republic Square\n\nToday, the Chinar Tree serves as a bustling pedestrian junction and meeting point linking the lower bazaar shops to the uphill paths leading toward the Upper Gate and Samuel's Fortress. The dense canopy of lobed leaves offers a sharp drop in ambient temperature compared to the heat of the surrounding stone pavement. Visitors and residents gather on public benches and outdoor café terraces beneath its shade, surrounded by the sound of fountain water, clinking coffee cups, rustling branches, and the periodic adhan echoing from the adjacent Ali Pasha Mosque minaret. Ohrid also preserves other venerable plane trees across the city, including the protected Voska plane tree (Voska Činar) situated near the historic Turkish bath.