What is the oldest tree in Madrid?
Madrid's oldest tree, by most accounts, is the Ahuehuete, a Montezuma cypress in the Parterre garden of Retiro Park, though its exact age is genuinely disputed: legend and old guidebooks claim it was planted in 1633, which would make it almost 400 years old, while recent studies by city arborists suggest it may be a much younger 200 years or less. Either way it stands in the Parterre, a five minute walk from Puerta de Alcala.
The Ahuehuete of the Parterre carries two irreconcilable stories about its own age. Guidebooks and the sign at its base repeat a long-standing claim that it was planted in 1633, during the creation of the Retiro as a royal hunting estate under the Count-Duke of Olivares, which would make it close to 400 years old and the oldest tree in Madrid by a wide margin. Specialists, including technicians from Madrid's own city council, are skeptical: the Parterre garden itself was laid out in 1714, replacing whatever vegetation existed before, and some estimates place the tree's planting after 1814, closer to two centuries old rather than four. Montezuma cypresses are native to Mexican wetlands and can live for millennia in the right conditions, so age alone cannot settle the question from the tree's condition. What is not disputed is the species: a swamp cypress from a country most Madrid residents have never associated with their own most famous park, thriving on the plateau for at least two centuries. Getting there: Puerta de Alcala, then a five minute walk into the Parterre garden.
One of Madrid's trees also appears in Europe's Ancient Oaks You Can Actually Visit, a themed collection spanning several cities.