La Ceiba de San Francisco, Caracas

The Ceiba de San Francisco is a tree located in front of the Church of San Francisco in Caracas, Venezuela. It is characterized as one of the most striking landmarks of the city and linked to the history of the city, with a lifespan originating in the mid-19th century. The tree is located a hundred meters from the Plaza Bolivar, the founding place of the city.

It is not known exactly what was the reason and the identity of its planter, in this regard there are several hypotheses. The one that is best supported by popular belief is that the ceiba was planted in 1866 by the daughter of Vicente Manzo, an official of the Caracas Police at that time. The girl watered the seed constantly until it took shape. By 1870, according to a photograph taken that year, the tree was already three meters tall, with the church in the background. It had been planted in the context of a walkway between the old Carmelite Convent - later demolished to make way for the Federal Legislative Palace - and the Palace of the Academies and the church. In 1873, a statue of the then president Antonio Guzmán Blanco, nicknamed El Saludante, was erected next to it, but it was demolished five years later.

As well as the version mentioned above, there is another story about its origins, which assures that Simón Bolívar, at the end of the Admirable Campaign in 1813, received the title of Liberator under the shade of the tree, although this anecdote is improbable since the ceiba tree did not exist at that time.

During the government of Guzmán Blanco, the trunk of the tree was surrounded by a lime and stone defense with wooden installations to serve as a desk and errand boy for the traders and brokers who originally worked in the Esquina La Bolsa, at the time of registering their transactions. This fact served as inspiration for the current logo of the Caracas Stock Exchange, which presents a drawing of the tree in the foreground, with the church of San Francisco and the Palacio de las Academias in the background.

The ceiba was declared a Natural Heritage Site in 2001. Today it is about 35 meters high, has suffered pruning over time and is within a road separator built on Avenida Universidad.