The Centenary Trees of Parque de la Misericordia

More than forty species of tree grow inside the walls of a Bilbao almshouse. The Santa y Real Casa de Misericordia moved to this site in Indautxu in 1872 and laid a romantic-style garden out around itself, and two sources describe what stands there now in the same terms: Spanish Wikipedia counts over forty different species and calls them arboles centenarios, and a Bilbao visitor guide says plainly that these are trees with more than a century of life behind them. The garden is the destination here rather than any one trunk. It is walled, gated shut at night and only 16,600 square metres, so you can walk all of it in twenty minutes and see most of what it holds. A tall palm dominates the middle. Among the specimens people point to are sequoias, magnolias, lindens, a Canary Island date palm and a bald cypress. Be clear about what is not known. No source names a single tree in this garden, dates one or measures one. The century-old claim covers the planting as a group, and the species above are what guides and visitors report rather than a survey anyone has published. The garden was laid out in 1872, which fits trees of that age and is not proof that any particular one stood here at the start. If the Misericordia keeps records of what went in when, we would like to see them.