The Plane of Hügelgasse

Most of the protected trees in this corner of Vienna stand in private courtyards. This one stands on the pavement. Hietzing's list of natural monuments reads largely as addresses with "im Hof" after them, in the courtyard, behind a gate somebody else controls. The entry for this plane says "Hügelgasse, vor Nr. 7", in front of house number 7, which is the difference between a tree you can read about and a tree you can put your hand on. It is not the biggest plane in Vienna and does not pretend to be. The trunk measures 2.2 metres around. What it has is a crown 16 metres across on an 18 metre frame, which on a narrow residential street means it covers the road, both pavements and the fronts of the houses on either side. In summer the whole block sits under it. Vienna entered it on the register of natural monuments on 17 January 1955, four months before the State Treaty ended the four-power occupation of the country. It has held the same patch of pavement in Unter St. Veit, the villa quarter west of Schönbrunn, ever since. Nobody has put an age on it. The register carries its height, its girth and the day it was protected, and nothing at all about when it went into the ground. If you know, tell us.