The Beech of Brevnovska Gate, Hvezda

Two invading armies stripped this wood before the tree standing here was ever planted. French troops took the game reserve's timber during the War of the Austrian Succession, Prussian troops finished the work in the Seven Years' War, and after 1763 Hvezda was replanted with beech, oak and hornbeam. This beech is one of the oldest survivors of that replanting. Assessments put it between 210 and 250 years old, revised to roughly 230 in 2019, so the arithmetic and the history agree with each other. It stands 50 metres inside the Brevnovska gate, on the main path toward the star-shaped Hvezda summer palace, and it is one of the tallest trees in the reserve: 34 metres when it was measured in 2009, with a crown 26 metres across and the heavy buttressed root flare that old beeches put down around their base. It is also still growing. The trunk read 373 centimetres round in 2009, 380 in 2013 and 386 in the register's 2024 update. Its health was assessed as very good with no significant damage, which is not nothing for a tree of this age standing a step from the reserve's busiest path; the maintenance file recommends a safety prune for that same reason. Do not confuse it with the twin beech 230 metres away near the same gate. Separate tree, separate register entry, and this is the one on the main path.