The Second Plane of Hallerwiese

City foresters plant planes because they are difficult to kill, and this one has had the chance to prove it. It is the second of the two large planes on the Hallerwiese, protected as ND-3, standing about forty metres from its twin and, by the city's own reckoning, over three hundred years old. Planes tolerate compacted soil, road salt, drought and smoke better than almost any other large broadleaf, which is why they line boulevards across Europe, and why this pair was still standing after the night of 2 January 1945, when an RAF raid destroyed roughly nine tenths of Nuremberg's old town on the far side of the Pegnitz. The medieval centre was rebuilt over the following decades from photographs and salvaged stone. The trees needed nothing. Nuremberg's own survey of its oldest trees treats the two planes as a pair and never separates them, while the ordinance gives each its own number, so this page keeps them as two entries while admitting they are one sight. Walk to the gnarled lime first, which is the oldest thing on the meadow, and the planes stand on the green immediately behind it. All three are within a minute of each other, free and open, about fifteen minutes on foot from the Hauptmarkt.