The Singing Linden of Teleci

A scribe named Jirousek is said to have hidden inside this trunk in the late 17th century, copying religious books the Counter-Reformation had banned, working by candlelight. Villagers who passed at night heard something coming out of the tree and said it was singing. That part is local tradition rather than record, but the hollow it turns on is real: the trunk is open at ground level and a person fits inside it. Both sources that describe the tree give an age of 600 to 700 years, and neither shows how the figure was reached, so treat it as the received one rather than a measurement. The girth is measured. Somebody taped it at 962 centimetres in 1899 and it is around 1,170 now, which puts it among the largest limes in eastern Bohemia. The crown reaches 21 to 23 metres depending on which survey year you read. It has been a protected cultural monument since 1978 and a national heritage tree since 1995. Teleci put it on the village coat of arms and the post office put it on a stamp. In 2021 the country voted it Czech Tree of the Year. It stands beside house number 102, about a hundred metres off the main road, unfenced, with the hollow trunk given maintenance work every couple of years to keep it upright.