The Gerichtslinde of Schlagsdorf
Approximate location. Show us where it is
How do I find it? You can recognise it by the trunk, 8.7 metres round, several original stems long since grown together into one. It stands in the churchyard of the Gothic village church on Hauptstrasse.
A tree decided Schlagsdorf had a new ruler, and later decided who got whipped for it. On 7 October 1518, Duke Magnus of Saxony summoned the village's farmers to gather under this linden and swear their allegiance, then held a regional court there the same day. It is documented history rather than village legend, according to the district's own account, and from 1589 a punishment post stood at the same spot for anyone sentenced to public church discipline. The tree is old enough to have witnessed all of it. Estimated at around 500 years, with a planting date put near 1523, its several original stems have long since grown together into one trunk 8.7 metres around and a crown reaching 20 metres. It stands today in the churchyard of Schlagsdorf's Gothic village church, on the village's main street, and it appears on Schlagsdorf's own coat of arms, a four-leaved linden branch representing the village's four districts, a mark of just how central this one tree is to how the place sees itself. No source has pinned down its exact spot within the churchyard closer than the church itself, so its pin here marks the churchyard rather than the trunk precisely. Free to visit, and open village ground.
- Species
- Small-leaved Lime (Tilia cordata)
- Girth
- 8.7 m
- Location
- Churchyard, Hauptstraße, 19217 Schlagsdorf, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany (Schlagsdorf village churchyard)
- Access
- Free. Stands in the churchyard of Schlagsdorf's Gothic village church, on Hauptstrasse, open village ground.
- Getting there
- In the centre of Schlagsdorf village, Amt Rehna, Nordwestmecklenburg district; reached by road.
The button above opens directions in your maps app.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
Discover more
Ticking this one off, walks past several more, and your collection growing city by city: that is the Ancient Trees app.
Get the appThis page was researched from a distance. If you know this tree, you know things we do not: the species, the age, the size, whether the photo shows the right tree, or that it is gone. Every field on this page can be corrected.
Correct a detail on this pageSuggest another tree