The Courtyard Lime of Gut Burgstall
The trunk is in two pieces, and they are one tree. Each half is shaped like a half ring, and together they close a circle of 8.70 metres, measured in October 2025 at waist height. Inside the hollow, roots have grown down and thickened into trunks of their own. Parts of the crown have broken away in storms and grown back, which is ordinary for a lime. The Nationalerbe-Bäume initiative, which picks a handful of Germany's oldest trees each year for a national list, declared this one a National Heritage Tree on 7 May 2026. Its people put the age at 600 to 800 years, from the tree's form, its site and the history of the estate, so the number is an estimate rather than a record. Bavaria has listed it as a natural monument for decades, number 43 in the Landkreis Ansbach register. It stands in the yard of a working farm alone in open country, with a view a long way out over the fields. That is a different Rothenburg from the one the coaches come for. The walled town is five kilometres away and full at every season; out here the lane narrows to one track and ends at the farm. The family lets visitors drive in and look at the tree, the initiative says so on its page, and asks that their home be treated as one. Nothing to ring, nothing to pay. No photograph here yet. One taken from the yard would be the first.
In bloom
June, when the scented pale yellow flowers open over the yard and the crown is loud with bees
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Gut Burgstall, 91541 Rothenburg ob der Tauber, about 5 km south-west of the old townThe one great lime in the farm courtyard, nearly nine metres round, its trunk split into two half-ring parts that belong to the same tree.
The courtyard of a private working farm, in open country. The Nationalerbe-Bäume initiative states that the drive in is free, the tree may be looked at and a car can be left in the yard; it is the family's home, so keep to the yard and leave it as you found it. No ticket, no gate, no bell.
No bus. About 5 km south-west of the old town by road: out through Wildbad on the St 1022, left at the Burgstall sign, after 200 m the lane bends right, then about 500 m of single-track road to the farm. Ten minutes by car; by bike or on foot allow well over an hour each way.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.