Thunder oak

Perkūnas’s Oak – the oldest Oak tree in Plungė Mansion Park – grows in the central area of the park next to Oginskis Palace. The diameter of Perkūnas’s Oak is one meter and sixty-five centimetres, while its height is twenty-five metres. The tree was declared a natural monument in the nineteen sixty, and since nineteen eighty-seven it has been a natural monument of national significance.

The tree itself is not only culturally significant, but also the myths and legends that surround it. It is told that during pagan times, the priestess Galinda kept an eternal holy flame burning there. One day, thunder and lightning suddenly broke out, hitting the nearby tree and opening a hollow within it. Earth appeared inside the tree, and a flower sprung out of the earth. It is because of this story that the oak came to be called Perkūnas’s Oak.