Olive Tree History In Spain
The olive tree olea europaea is an evergreen tree or shrub native to the mediterranean asia and africa it is short and squat and rarely exceeds 8 15 m 26 49 ft in height.
Olive tree history in spain. The largest olive producers in the ancient world then were greece italy the levant the north coast of africa spain and syria. Pisciottana a unique variety comprising 40 000 trees found only in the area around pisciotta in the campania region of southern italy often exceeds this with correspondingly large trunk diameters. Local news in particular from the costa del sol andalucia alicante murcia and mallorca plus national news from around spain. Sicily southern france the west coast of spain and the black sea coast.
The phoenicians and greeks originally introduced the olive tree olea europea into spain. The olive press is the english language newspaper for spain. Spain s oldest olive groves. Located close to the via augusta the roman road that connected rome with cadiz spain you ll find what locals believe to be spain s oldest olive trees and perhaps even some of the oldest olive trees in the world.
The cultivation of olives and the production of olive oil have deep roots in the history of spain. The ancient greeks brought olive cultivation to their colonies. Spanish olive cultivation olive cultivation and olive oil processing are inextricably linked to the history of spain. It is well known that olive trees were cultivated in the south of spain during roman times.
Its origin could be the eastern mediterranean but most probably it originated in greece. Places which enjoyed a particularly high reputation in antiquity for fine quality oil included attica baetica in spain cyrenaica libya samos and venafrum italy. The olive a symbol of peace and the tree which produces olives olea europea are known to have been cultivated around the mediterranean about 6000 years ago. The spanish spread the olive tree to the american continent findings from the third century bce from various places in the land of israel give evidence of numerous olive groves planted all over the country.
Some of the trees date all the way back to roman times when the romans first mastered the art of olive cultivation allowing the iberian peninsula to become the biggest producer in the roman empire. They loved and deified the olive tree and attributed a religious and sacrosanct character to its origin condemning to death anyone who destroyed an olive tree. Later on the romans expanded its cultivation and improved upon olive oil production techniques.