Holy Trinity Oak Tree Chapel in Čibukovac, Serbia

Most Popular PlacesRandom PlaceListsItinerariesAdd a PlaceDownload the App Holy Trinity Oak Tree Chapel The Grand Mesa The Warner Theatre The Academy of Natural Sciences Cryptid Tourism: The Best Museums, Destinations & Festivals Across America 4 days ago Three people can fit inside this little Serbian Orthodox church carved inside a 500-year-old oak tree. The Holy Trinity oak chapel in Čibukovac, a small village near Kraljevo, is built inside a pedunculate oak believed to be over 500 years old. It is thought to be the oldest oak in Serbia.

The tree stands more than 30 metres tall, with a trunk circumference of about 8 metres and a diameter of roughly two and a half metres, wide enough that villager Mihailo Erotijević, with the help of Father Radojko and others, was able to hollow out its trunk and turn it into a small working chapel. Since the feast of the Holy Trinity is the village's main Slava (a custom in the Serbian Orthodox tradition), the chapel took that dedication naturally. The interior was coated with wax to help preserve it, and small niches hold icons of the Holy Trinity, the Theotokos (Mother of God), the Great Martyr George the Victorious, St.

Basil of Ostrog, the Crucifixion, and St. Paraskeva (Petka), a saint especially beloved across the Balkans. Villagers still gather there for major feast days in the Serbian Orthodox Calendar, and some visit alone simply to pray.

There is also a local detail that adds to its mystery and why it is special.Before the tree became a chapel, it was frequently struck by lightning, something residents see as part of its passage from an ordinary ancient oak into a site of devotion. The Holy Trinity Oak Tree Chapel a striking, living echo of zapis meaning "inscription", an old Slavic traditions of venerating sacred trees across Serbian villages. Get more unusual and extraordinary places each week with the Atlas Obscura Places newsletter.

Your newsletter subscriptions with us are subject to Atlas Obscura's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Please respect this venue as a place of worship frequented by the local Serbian Orthodox community. Two ancient yew trees with a chapel and an altar built inside their hollow trunks.

Legend says that these centuries-old trees, which pre-date their nearby church, were planted by monks. This subterranean chapel is said to be where the Holy Family sought refuge before fleeing to Egypt. Here lies Zona, whose ghostly testimony led to her husband’s murder conviction.