The Sycamore of Schartenbauer
The protection on this sycamore does not stop at the bark. When Land Salzburg made it a natural monument on 7 December 1990, the order covered a circle reaching 20 metres out from the trunk in every direction, across three plots of farmland belonging to the Schartenbauer farm. What sits at the centre of that circle is a big tree by any measure. The monument text records a height of 25 metres, a crown 18 to 20 metres wide and a trunk 4.20 metres round at chest height, dividing into its main limbs about three metres up. Those are the figures from the day it was surveyed. In German it is a Bergahorn, a mountain maple, and this one grows where the name says, on a slope below the woods. It stands in a sloping meadow at Thurnberg, in Puch bei Hallein, about ten kilometres south-east of Salzburg's old town, with woodland behind it. That puts it well outside the city and a long way from any other tree on this page. Ivy climbs the lower trunk, and a yellow hiking signpost stands at its foot, because a waymarked trail runs right beside it. That trail is how to meet it. The meadow is farmland, and we have not established whether you may walk into it, so look from the path. Nobody has published an age for the tree either. If you know how old it is, tell us.
Flowerswinged seeds that spin down in pairsAutumn colour
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.
Beim Schartenbauern, Thurnberg, Puch bei HalleinYou can recognise it by the ivy on its lower trunk and the yellow hiking signpost at its foot. It stands alone in a sloping meadow at Thurnberg, Puch bei Hallein, with woodland behind.
Stands in a farm meadow beside a waymarked hiking path (a yellow Wanderweg signpost stands next to the trunk in the 2025 photograph). The land belongs to the Schartenbauer farm; not checked whether the meadow itself may be entered, so view from the path.
Thurnberg, Puch bei Hallein, about 10 km south-east of Salzburg old town; public transport and walking time not checked
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.