What is the oldest tree in Hallstatt?

Hallstatt's oldest tree with a stated age is the Obertraun Dorfeibe, a village yew on the Hauptstrasse in neighbouring Obertraun. The province put its age at roughly 200 years when it was protected in 1980, which means somewhat past 200 today; nobody has published a firmer figure. It stands immediately before the turn-off to the town hall.

Upper Austria's natural monument register protected the Obertraun yew on 18 December 1980 and called it a Dorfdenkmal, a village monument, the only one of Hallstatt's four register yews given that word. At the time it measured 136 centimetres round and about ten metres tall, and the file estimated its age at roughly 200 years. Forty-six years have passed since that measurement, so the true age today runs somewhat past two centuries; the register never repeated the count. The other three yews on this page are thicker by girth alone (the Hallstatt boat-landing tree is over 2.6 metres round, the Bad Goisern church yew 2.25 metres, the Untersee meadow yew 2.1 metres) but none carries any age at all, so this remains the only one with a number attached, loose as that number is. Hallstatt's fifth protected tree, a copper beech on a hilltop above Gosau, was designated for the shape of its crown rather than for size or age, and carries neither. The four yews stand within a short train or boat ride of each other around the lake; the beech stands apart, up the valley road toward Gosau.

Read the full story of The Obertraun Dorfeibe, or see all 5 remarkable ancient trees in Hallstatt.

One of Hallstatt's trees also appears in The Autumn Harvest, a themed collection spanning several cities.

Over 3,200 old trees worth the walk

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