The Field Elm of Burggasse

Europe lost most of its large elms in the second half of the twentieth century, which is reason enough to look at a field elm planted in 1915 and still standing. Ulmus minor was the species Dutch elm disease hit hardest: a fungus carried tree to tree by bark beetles that killed the great majority of Europe's mature elms from the 1960s onward. No record says this particular tree survived a particular outbreak. It simply kept going while the species around it did not. It grows on the narrow green strip down the middle of Burggasse, between the roadway and a service lane, which is an odd address for a protected natural monument and is precisely why it earned the status. Vienna's tree catalogue gives the planting year as 1915, a trunk 290 centimetres around, a height of 16 to 20 metres and a crown almost as wide as the tree is tall. The city protected it on 8 August 2006 as Naturdenkmal Nr. 794, and the decree's stated reason is plain: its size, and what it does for the character of the street. Two city departments record it at two different addresses, one calling it Burggasse 26 and the other Burggasse 39. Only one field elm appears in the whole Neubau district list, so this is one tree with two addresses. Its crown is cut back regularly for the power lines and the traffic, so expect a working street tree rather than a park specimen.