The chestnut is a tree of great longevity. Specimens of up to thousands of years’ old have been found, such as the “Old Chestnut” in San Román de Sanabria and the famous “Cento cavalla” (hundred horsemen) in Sicily, thought to be more than 2,500 years old. This was on the slopes of Etna until the last century and was over 50 m in circumference.
According to tradition, it served as a refuge for Queen Juana of Aragón and her 100 horsemen. There are also magnificent chestnut specimens in San Román de Sanabria, which is 4 m in diameter, in the Hermisende and Alto de la Alcobilla areas and the centennial ones in Aliste, all in the province of Zamora.
If you visit the Soutomaior Castle in Pontevedra, Galicia, there are ancient chestnut trees growing there; as well as the ancient chestnut tree of Entrambosrios in the Ribeira Sacra, nestled on a route dotted with other old chestnut trees and traditional mills from over 700 years ago.
In Roman times, chestnut trees occupied about 150,000 hectares in Spain. Dioscorides said that "the leaf and the bark are astringent tannins, with pectins and flavonoids being notable active substances".
A natural shampoo is prepared from the peel of its fruit, the chestnut, and its leaves, which dyes the hair in blonde tones. The flowers are highly sought after by bees and were formerly used to flavour pipe tobacco. It is a tree of enormous vitality, with thick branches and a majestic bearing.
Chestnut wood is traditionally considered of high quality. It is very flexible, fine-grained and easy to work with, and has often been chosen as a local craft material.
It is heavily used in cooperage due to its lack of porosity. Overseas activity led to the expansion of the chestnut tree to the detriment of the oak, since most of the containers for seeds, grains and salted products had to be built with chestnut staves and rings due to their ability to withstand the oxidising effect of salinity during sea transport. Its use has also been highly appreciated in carpentry, for doors, windows, floors, joinery, construction, decorative sheeting and shipbuilding. Its high natural durability is due to its high chemical content of tannin and its low permeability.
It is a hard wood par excellence, and grows very close to our environment, enriching the communities that cultivate it and the soil where it grows, where it is very valuable in bringing life back to depleted soils. Its deep roots protect the soil, its shade maintains freshness and its leaves provide a precious organic contribution.
Chestnut is one of the woods that most widely complies with all the conditions, both social and ecological, for the manufacture of sustainable products. Using products extracted or manufactured within a radius as close as possible to the point of manufacture considerably reduces CO2 emissions and its environmental impact.
As a result of our commitment to using sustainable production as much as possible, we recently made a radical decision by replacing all finishes in our collections made with wood from various locations in the world with wood that can be found closer to home, such as chestnut.
This transcendental change made us pioneers in the use of local woods, with more than 90% of this material coming from places closer to our manufacturing location.