The largest oak in the Royal National City Park

The Prince Eugen oak is growing in the park to the north of Prince Eugen’s Waldemarsudde. It is believed to be the oldest living oak tree on Djurgården – and in the whole of Stockholm. The oak tree originally had three trunks. When measured in 2006, it was 21 metres high. The circumference of the trunk was 9.2 metres, and its volume was 45 cubic metres. The age of the tree is estimated to be between 300 and 400 years.

Oak trees were protected in Sweden in the 16th century, so that they could be used as timber to build warships. The punishment for cutting down an oak tree during the period when Sweden was a major power was death – oak trees were the property of the king. Oak trees were protected right up until the 1830s, and this is why so many oak trees remain on Djurgården and throughout Sweden.