Gerichtslinde (Neuenrade)

The court came before the town. Justice in this corner of the Sauerland was handed down under this lime by the bailiffs of Neuenrade, who rode out from a castle that has since vanished completely, and they were doing it before Neuenrade received its town charter in 1355. That is what a Gerichtslinde is, a tree used as a courtroom, chosen because everyone in the valley knew where it stood and because shade and a fixed spot were all a medieval assembly needed. Both the town's own tourism office and the standard account of Neuenrade put the tree at about 900 years old, which would make it roughly three centuries older than the town that grew up around it. Nobody has published a girth or a height for it, so the age is tradition rather than arithmetic, and we are not going to dress it up as a measurement. It stands in the Stadtpark Auf dem Wall, the public park on the old town rampart, along a 200-metre history trail carrying 42 bronze plaques, so the town has already made a point of it. One thing we do not know: neither source says whether it is a summer or a winter lime. If you can tell from the leaf, tell us.