The Fig of Paseito de Ramiro

A fig here has a crown 27 metres across, wide enough that its neighbour, growing nineteen metres away, is usually mistaken for the same tree. Alicante's regional tree register counts them as two separate Indian laurel figs, Ficus microcarpa, 2.67 and 2.85 metres round, 13 and 16 metres tall, and treats their shared plot in Paseito de Ramiro, facing Postiguet beach, as one small park rather than two addresses. The city's own printed walking route through the old town is the only source that puts an age on them at all: about 80 years, tucked into an itinerary that also notes a 56-metre stretch of 16th-century city wall running through the same park. The ground has an older history than the figs do. It was once the medina's own souk, and in the early 20th century became one of Spain's first outdoor schools, named for the historian Rafael Altamira. Neither fact dates the trees themselves, only the plot they grew up in. The park sits on the city's official Red de Senderos Urbanos walking route, a few minutes from the beach, free and open with no gate.