The Himalayan Cedar of the Labyrinth

This cedar grows in the oldest surviving garden of its kind in Barcelona, a neoclassical estate commissioned in 1791 that later grew a romantic wing around it, cypress maze included. The Himalayan cedar itself is a relative latecomer to that story, planted around 1910 in what the estate calls its domestic garden, alongside a silver lime it still shares the plot with today. Himalayan cedars come from the mountains between Afghanistan and Nepal, where the wood was prized for shipbuilding and temple construction; this one has spent over a century adapting to Mediterranean summers instead. A storm at some point in its life snapped its main growth leader, the topmost shoot that normally directs a conifer's upward climb, and the tree has grown on with a slightly altered silhouette ever since, its crown now 22 metres across. The whole park closed in March 2025 for a two-year renovation of its historic cypress maze and irrigation system, so this cedar stands out of reach until the gardens are due to reopen in 2027.