Beyond aqueducts and roads: The surprising legacy the Romans left behind

When one thinks of the legacy the Romans left behind in the lands they conquered, visions of impressive aqueducts and the superb roads may come to mind, as well as the Romantic languages that can trace their roots back to Latin.

However, they spread something else that changed the landscape, the sweet chestnut tree. It wasn’t for the nuts, although they would become an important staple for many communities, instead it was for the raw material the fast-growing trees provided.

The sweet chestnut tree and the surprising legacy the Romans left behind

The Romans didn’t just export the trees around Europe but also the arboriculture, tree cultivation techniques, that the different civilizations they brought under their control ended up sharing.

Within their European domains, the Romans made it into “a connected, economical space,” explained Patrik Krebs, a geographer at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) to the BBC. Through creating a single system of governance and military, road and trade systems they were able to spread “specific skills in arboriculture [which] were shared by all the different civilisations.”

From building material to staple food crop

The Romans’ inclination toward growing the sweet chestnut tree, Castanea in Latin, was because of its “resprouting capacity,” said Krebs based on ancient texts. The fruit itself “was portrayed as a rustic food of poor, rural people in Roman society, such as shepherds.”

“When you cut it, it resprouts very fast and produces a lot of poles that are naturally very high in tannins, which makes the wood resistant and long-lasting,” he explained. “You can cut this wood and use it for building fortresses, for any kind of construction, and it quickly sprouts again.”

This was done through a practice called coppicing, where by you cut back the shoots from the tree, also known as root suckers. The practice can also help rejuvenate chestnut trees.

While the elite Romans may not have cared much for the chestnuts themselves, they would go on to become an important food source in the Middle Ages and a staple food in many parts of Europe.

The trees are easy to grow, thriving even where other fruit trees struggle shared Krebs. And the fruit, which can be dried and ground into flour, is very nourishing.

Chestnuts are still an import part of traditional cuisine in many countries including France, Portugal and Spain to this day. Across Europe, there are over 6 million acres of land, an area the size of Sardinia, covered by sweet chestnut trees.

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