The Plane Tree Below Petrov

One of Brno's protected trees keeps seasonal hours. The plane below Petrov grows on a small terrace built into the old city ramparts at the end of Denisovy sady, and that terrace is planted up with flower displays through the tourist season and closed off in winter. Come in January and you look at the tree from the path instead of standing under it, which is worth knowing before you walk up the hill. The plane is about 160 years old, its crown reaching some 25 metres, and its trunk measures 400 to 415 centimetres depending on whose tape and which year: the national register carries the lower figure, turistika.cz the higher one. Above it stands the Cathedral of St Peter and Paul, the silhouette in every photograph of the city. Denisovy sady itself was laid out along the ramparts, which makes this corner one of the few places in Brno where the defensive works survive as landscape rather than as a line on a map. The Czech name is Platan javorolistý na Petrově. Locals will tell you this is the best corner of the park, and standing on the terrace with the rooftops in front of you and the cathedral at your back, it is hard to argue.