Ten-trunk Antakalnis Linden (Grigaliūnas Linden)
The linden growing right in the centre of the Antakalnis village in the district of Kaišiadoriai, might be misleading. From the first look it may seem that there are a few trees. This linden has ten trunks. The main mother trunk of the linden was cut down 90 years ago. However, the linden, which was said to be the special tree of life, did not turn into a stump. On the contrary, ten new lindens grew from it. Their height reaches up to twenty meters now. The thickness of the trunks differs. The one that got more sunlight are wider, the others completely slender. The trunk of the thinnest linden is just 18 centimetres. The thickest trunk is three times wider – 53 centimetres. The extent of all of the ten trunks makes up 11, 78 metres.
In old times, linden trees were kept sacred, where gods would live. Women would bring sacrifices to the linden trees and would ask for love, beauty and health. Baby cradles were made from linden trees, and the women of the village told to bring the weak children to the multi-trunk tree to make them stronger.
The ten-trunk linden is growing at the private land plot of R. Grigaliūnas, in the village of Anatakalnis, district of Kaišiadorys.
