The Plane of the Riera de Gaia Square
This tree is the square. La Riera de Gaia is a small town inland from the coast north of Tarragona, and the plane standing in its Placa de la Vila takes up most of it, which is the way these things went in Catalan villages: a plane was put in the square because it grows fast, casts dense shade by June and can be pollarded hard every few years without complaint, and then it outlived the reason and became the thing the square is named for. Catalonia declared it a monumental tree in 1992, which makes cutting it illegal. It is one of the trees selected for the book Arboles singulares de Espana, where it takes a two-page spread. The register lists it as being in normal condition and puts it at 23 metres tall, but gives no trunk girth at breast height, so this page cannot tell you how thick it is, only that Catalonia thought it worth protecting and that a national survey of Spain's singular trees agreed. If you have measured it, tell us.
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.
Placa de la Vila, La Riera de Gaia 43762, TarragonaYou can recognise it as the tree that fills most of the village square, a pollarded plane declared a monument in 1992. It stands in the Placa de la Vila, La Riera de Gaia.
Free, in the public square in the middle of the village
About 11 km northeast of Tarragona, roughly 15 minutes by car
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.