The Ficus of the Alameditas de Serranos

This promenade was a leather-tanning ground before it was a garden. In 1830 the Baron de Herves laid out the Alameditas de Serranos as two tree-lined walks flanking the Serranos gate, on ground previously used for curing hides, and the staircases either side of the gate followed in 1837. The fig that grows there now is the smallest of Valencia's registered monumental figs, and not by a little: 6.2 metres around, against the 9.3 to 13.8 metres of the giants in the Parterre, the Glorieta and the Palacio de Raga. It is still large enough that the city had to send crews in 2022 to cut it back where its branches had grown into the traffic. Nobody knows when it went in. The garden dates from 1830, which is the only firm ceiling anyone has, and no individual record for this tree survives, which is why the age range given here is as wide as it is. There is also a contradiction worth stating rather than smoothing over. At least one survey of the Alameditas says the promenade holds nothing of particular age or botanical interest beyond an Acacia farnesiana. The regional catalogue, meanwhile, lists this fig as a protected singular tree, a legal designation under the Valencian tree law of 2006 that requires meeting specific criteria. The register is the stronger evidence. The disagreement is real all the same. It stands at the foot of the Torres de Serranos, the old city gate.