Plane trees

If you walk downstream from the National Museum you have the Sihl on your left and the Limmat on your right.
At the beginning of the 18th century avenues of lime trees were planted along both banks. Today there are plane trees. Then in 1780 the area was redesigned as a park along French lines. The baroque pleasure grove, with its many trees, became a popular promenade. Two groups of the trees planted at that time are still standing today. You can see one of them if you look over towards the Limmat from here. You’ll spot a circle of five huge plane trees. There were originally six of them. They were packed together so closely that they forced each other upwards in their search for light. Now 240 years old, they are among Zurich’s oldest trees. The second group of trees from that time are the two planes that we pointed out to you near the bandstand.