Step inside the trunk of this lime and there is a seat waiting: a square bench built into the hollow centre, framed by three tiers of branches trained out over an octagonal wooden support. Locals call it a Dreistufenlinde, a three-tiered linden, and rank it among the best documented guided lime trees in Germany. A new oak frame went up under it in June 2022, the latest in centuries of upkeep that kept its shape from collapsing under its own weight. The village itself is not sure exactly when it was planted. The municipality's own estimate lands around 1748; a sign on site claims 1640, a century earlier. Nobody has resolved the gap, so both dates stand, giving the tree an age put loosely at 300 to 380 years by whichever is right. A 2021 survey found it 2.91 metres round, 9 metres tall, and healthy. The square beneath it once hosted the village's dances and, before that, its court, the same double purpose that shaped guided lindens across this stretch of Hessen. It carries both Naturdenkmal and Baumveteran protection today.
In bloom
June to July, when it flowers
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
An der Linde, corner of Schulberg, Hilgershausen, Stadt Felsberg, 34587 Hessen, GermanyYou can recognise it by the bench built inside its hollow trunk, its branches trained in three tiers over an octagonal wooden frame. It stands at An der Linde, on the corner of Schulberg, in Hilgershausen.
Free, no permission needed. The tree stands on an open square in the village, a former dance and court site.
Rural Hessen, no train station nearby. Felsberg is roughly 6km, about 10 minutes, away by car.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
