Neruda's Pear Tree

This pear tree remembers a poet's birthplace that no longer exists. Jan Neruda, the 19th century writer whose name now marks Prague's most photographed street on the other side of the hill, was born in an army barracks that once stood near this spot on the eastern slope of Petrin; the barracks are long demolished, but the pear tree that stood nearby when he was a boy is still bearing fruit. Prague's tree survey estimates its age at around 190 years, measured a trunk 292 centimetres around in 2015, and calls it exceptionally old for its species, since wild pears rarely reach anywhere close to two centuries. Unlike most trees on this list, it carries no formal legal protection; the city added it to its inventory of significant trees only in 2013, one tier below the memorial tree status that comes with fines for damaging a tree. It grows at a quiet path crossing in the Seminary Garden, in the lower orchard section between the Petrinske Terasy restaurant and Hellichova street, a former monastery garden open to the public since 1930. Most visitors climbing Petrin for the views pass within a few metres of it without knowing an old pear tree, let alone one tied to Neruda, is there at all.