Innsbruck's oldest protected trees grow on street corners and lanes more than in parks. Six are on this map: a corkscrew oak beside the Hofgarten, the last protected tree left on its plot; an oak on the Meinhardstrasse whose crown clears a five-storey building; a very old 30-metre oak and a pair of ivy-clad black locusts a short walk apart in Hötting; a damaged pine above the Planötzenhof, protected in 1928; and a riverside oak in the Traklpark in Mühlau. None has a published age.
0 of 6 visited in Innsbruck
Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur) · Innsbruck city centre
Innsbruck put this oak under protection in 1934, earlier than most trees on its list of natural monuments, and it grows on an ordinary street corner a few minutes' walk from the main station.
On paper it looks modest. The Land Tirol survey puts the trunk of this pedunculate oak at about two metres round at the base, and does not say when the tape went on. The crown tells a different story. It climbs past the fifth floor of the Landwirtschaftskammer, the agricultural chamber building next door, and the survey describes it as a tree that shapes the look of the whole street. Registers rarely say that about anything.
Protection in 1934 means it was already a named feature of this corner before the Second World War. The list has lost trees since, among them a copper beech by the Landestheater felled in September 2025. This one is still on it.
That is as far as the record goes. The register dates the protection, not the planting, and nobody has published an age. If you know when it went in, tell us.
Our pin is the register's own point, good to a few tens of metres, so trust the crown over the dot: the oak that rises above the building beside it, where the Meinhardstrasse meets the Brixner Strasse. It costs nothing to see, from the pavement.
Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur) · Innsbruck old town, beside the Hofgarten
Most oaks spread sideways. This one corkscrews upward. In front of the Stadtcafé on the Rennweg grows Quercus robur 'Fastigiata Tortuosa', a cultivated form of the pedunculate oak with a pointed, pyramid-shaped crown and branches that snake as they climb. The city's tree register, as cited in Wikipedia's list of Innsbruck's natural monuments, puts it at more than 20 metres tall and more than three metres round.
It is a curiosity rather than an ancient, and it was protected as a natural monument in 1984 for what it looks like, which is reason enough. The Hofgarten, the old court garden, is next door, so the walk from one to the other takes a minute.
It is also the last protected tree on its plot. Rennweg 2 once held three. A black pine lost its protection in 2013 and collapsed in January 2021. A copper beech at the Landestheater, on the same plot, was felled in September 2025. The corkscrew oak is the one still standing.
Nobody has recorded when it was planted, and the register gives no age. If you know, tell us.
Our pin is the register's point, good to a few tens of metres, which matters less here than usual: no other tree on the Rennweg grows in this shape. It stands in public street space and costs nothing to see.
Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur) · Hötting
The survey that lists Innsbruck's natural monuments did not put a number on this oak's age. It simply called it very old.
It gave the rest. This pedunculate oak stands almost 30 metres tall, and its trunk measures three and a half metres round, by the Land Tirol survey's figures, which carry no date of measurement. Those are big numbers for any oak, and this one grows not in a park but at a fork in a lane in Hötting, where the Schulgasse meets the access road to the old people's home.
It was put under protection in 1940, in the middle of the war, and has held that status for more than eighty years. The register records the protection, not the planting, and "very old" is the survey's word, not a date. Nobody has published anything firmer. If you know how old it is, tell us.
It makes an easy pairing with the two old black locusts beside the Hötting church and cemetery, a short walk away, so one trip up to Hötting covers both. The pin is the register's point, good to a few tens of metres; at nearly 30 metres, the oak is easier to find than the dot. It stands on a public lane and costs nothing to see.
Photo: Gotglä (CC BY-SA 3.0 at)
Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) · Hötting
Innsbruck protects these two black locusts as one natural monument. They were listed together in 1978, under a single entry, and they stand in a small public park beside the cemetery of the old Hötting church.
The larger is about 23 metres tall, with a trunk more than a metre across at the base, and the survey records it as covered in ivy. A metre across works out to more than three metres round if the trunk were a perfect circle, which trunks never quite are, so take that as a floor rather than a measurement.
Black locust came to Europe from North America. The survey calls these two old and says no more: no planting date, no age, nothing that ties them to the church's own history. Nobody has dated them. If you know when they went in, tell us.
The park is tiny, which makes them easy to find: two tall trees side by side by the cemetery wall, north of the Hötting cemetery on the Steinbruchstrasse. Black locusts flower in early summer, hanging white and strongly scented, and June is when to come if you want them at their best.
The very old oak on the Schulgasse is a short walk away, so one trip to Hötting covers both. Entry to the park is free.
Pine (Pinus sp.) · Hötting hillside
Tyrol put this pine under protection in 1928, and the survey of Innsbruck's natural monuments calls it one of the oldest in the province. That is a claim about the paperwork, not the tree: the protection is old, and nobody has published the pine's age.
The tree has paid for its years. Its trunk once split about four metres up into three stems. The main trunk and the lower branches have since had to be removed, so what stands at the path fork above the Planötzenhof, a farm inn on the Hötting hillside, is a damaged survivor rather than a complete tree.
It has held its protection for nearly a century, longer than any other tree we map in Innsbruck, through the war years and every winter on the slope since.
The sources call it a Föhre, a pine, and stop there. In Tyrol that usually means Scots pine, but no source says so for this tree, so we give only the genus. None gives a girth or a height either. If you can name the species, or have measured it, tell us.
Getting there is a walk: uphill from Hötting to the Planötzenhof, then about 100 metres higher to the fork in the public path. Our pin is the register's point, good to a few tens of metres. It costs nothing to see.
Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur) · Mühlau, by the Inn promenade
The register still files this oak under a guesthouse. Its entry reads "beim Gasthof Dollinger", by the Dollinger inn, while the tree itself stands in the Traklpark, a small public park on the Inn beside the Mühlau fire station.
It is a pedunculate oak, about 20 metres tall, with a trunk almost a metre across at the time of the survey. Worked out as a circle, that is roughly three metres round, an estimate rather than a measurement, and the survey gives no date for it.
It was protected in 1940, the same year as the very old oak on the Schulgasse in Hötting, and has held that status ever since. Innsbruck has lost protected trees in the decades between; this one is still on the list. Nobody has published its age, and the register dates the protection, not the planting. If you know when it went in, tell us.
The register's point and the one in Wikipedia's list of natural monuments sit about 20 metres apart, so treat our pin as approximate. In a park this small it hardly matters: walk to the riverside park beside the fire station, opposite Haller Strasse 5, and look for the big oak.
It is on the north bank, about one and a half kilometres from the old town across the Inn, and free to visit.
Photo: Gotglä (CC BY-SA 3.0 at)