Masaryk's Lime

estimated over 200 yearsLarge-leaved Limepin approximate

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A president picked a tree, and an architect built a terrace around it. Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, installed at Prague Castle from 1918, took to sitting on a bare rise above the Deer Moat under a lime already more than a century old, so he set Josip Plecnik, the Slovene architect he had put in charge of remaking the castle, to make the spot worth sitting in. Between 1922 and 1924 Plecnik terraced the slope in stone, planted it with vines and left the lime standing at the centre of a three quarter circle platform. Masaryk's own bench did not survive. Two stone ones now flank the tree, which the castle's own account puts at over 200 years old. Then the place disappeared: from 1948 the entire moat was a guarded military zone, shut for four decades, and it was Vaclav Havel who had it opened again, with the viewpoint restored in 1996. The trunk is the one thing the sources will not agree on, 249 centimetres in one survey and 349 in another, a gap too wide to split. The view is not in dispute. The Archbishop's Palace and the cathedral line up below you, from a bench under a tree, which is what the whole thing was built for.

The buttons above open directions and collecting. 8 min walk from the Brusnice tram stop (lines 22, 23), entering the Upper Deer Moat and climbing Plecnik's double staircase

The pin marks the right spot roughly, not the tree itself. It stands here, but we have not confirmed the precise position on the ground yet. Know exactly where it is?

Species
Large-leaved Lime (Tilia platyphyllos)
Age estimate
estimated over 200 years
Location
Masarykova vyhlidka, Horni Jeleni prikop below Lumbeho zahrada, 118 00 Praha 1-Hradcany (Hradcany, Prague Castle)
Access
Free, but only when the Upper Deer Moat is open, usually April to October, roughly 10:00 to 18:00. The viewpoint itself sits inside the castle security perimeter and has been closed for stretches under different presidents; since 2021 it is reachable only from the Upper Deer Moat and not from Klarov. Check the castle's opening notices before making the walk for this tree alone.
Getting there
8 min walk from the Brusnice tram stop (lines 22, 23), entering the Upper Deer Moat and climbing Plecnik's double staircase

Trees nearby

The Ash of Strahov Gardenestimated 210-230 years · 640 m awayThe Field Maple of the Seminary Gardenestimated 160-170 years · 890 m awayNeruda's Pear Treeestimated 190 years · 910 m away
Curious what else is standing in Prague? See all 16 remarkable ancient trees in Prague or find out what the oldest tree in Prague is.
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This page was researched from a distance. If you know this tree, you know things we do not.

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