The Grapefruit of the Cartuja Monastery
age unknownGrapefruit
Grapefruit is a young fruit. The hybrid was first recorded in Barbados in the eighteenth century, which means no grapefruit tree anywhere can be truly ancient, however large it grows. This one grows large. It stands 14 metres with a crown of 13, and its trunk runs 2.20 metres around, measured at 0.85 metres rather than the usual chest height, widening to 2.50 at the base. For a citrus, that is close to absurd. It lives in the Huerta Grande, one of the two old orchards of the Cartuja monastery. Carthusian monks farmed this ground from the fifteenth century, and the orchards outlasted them, the English china factory that took the buildings over in the nineteenth century, and the Expo of 1992 that rebuilt the island around the walls. The monastery is now the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, and the visitor route through it finishes in those orchards, so the tree is on the standard path rather than behind a staff door. There is an entry fee of a few euros, waived all day on Saturdays and from seven in the evening Tuesday to Friday, and the site closes on Mondays. The city's 2022 survey rates the tree normal on physiology, plant health and structure, and gives it no age at all. Nobody appears to have recorded when it was planted. If a monastery or factory record says otherwise, tell us and we will add it.
The button above opens directions in your maps app. On Isla de la Cartuja; TUSSAM bus lines C1 and C2 stop close by (Lopez Pintado/Caixa Forum, about 2 minutes' walk, or Americo Vespucio/Monasterio de la Cartuja, about 4 minutes' walk). Also reachable on foot from Triana over the Pasarela de la Cartuja footbridge.
- Species
- Grapefruit (Citrus x paradisi)
- Age estimate
- Location
- Huerta Grande, Monasterio de la Cartuja (CAAC), Isla de la Cartuja, 41092 Sevilla (Triana Oeste, Triana)
- Access
- Paid entry: inside the Monasterio de la Cartuja, now the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo (CAAC), a public museum. A monument ticket and a combined monument-plus-exhibitions ticket are both sold at a few euros each; free entry runs Tuesday to Friday 19:00-21:00 and on Saturdays. Open Tuesday to Saturday 11:00-21:00, Sunday and holidays 10:00-15:30, closed Mondays. The self-guided route through the monastery ends at the old orchards, Huerta Vieja and Huerta Grande, so any visitor who buys a ticket during opening hours reaches the tree.
- Getting there
- On Isla de la Cartuja; TUSSAM bus lines C1 and C2 stop close by (Lopez Pintado/Caixa Forum, about 2 minutes' walk, or Americo Vespucio/Monasterio de la Cartuja, about 4 minutes' walk). Also reachable on foot from Triana over the Pasarela de la Cartuja footbridge.
Trees nearby
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