The Stephan-Ludwig-Roth Oak

On 15 September 1817 a man stopped and rested under this oak, and Salzburg has been naming the tree after him ever since. He was Stephan Ludwig Roth, born 1796, died 1849, a teacher and later a leader of the Transylvanian Saxons. The register records the date of that rest, which is the useful part of the story: the oak was already a landmark worth stopping at two centuries ago, or nobody would have written down which tree it was. A Salzburg blog that catalogues the city's notable trees puts the age at over two hundred years, and that is as precise as anyone has been prepared to be, so it is as precise as we will be. It became a natural monument in 1969, with 490 square metres of protected ground around it, which is a generous piece of Morzg set aside for a single tree. It stands at a woodland edge on the southern edge of the city, a short walk from the tram, on public ground and free to reach. Go sooner rather than later. The same blog reports a fungal infection in the tree and cites an expectation that it has roughly twenty years left. It is alive and standing now. That is what the sources say today, and a tree in that condition is worth a second look from anyone who passes it: if you see the crown thinning or the trunk opening up, tell us.