Have you ever seen thousand-year-old larches in person?

Just a few minutes’ walk from the village of St. Geltrude in Val d’Ultimo are the Außerlahn farms, located at the foot of a forest that protects them from avalanches. Here one can admire three larch trees, considered to be among the oldest in Europe, with an estimated age of almost 1,000 years, precisely 850 according to recent analyses conducted in 2004. These trees stand at a height of 1,430 metres above sea level. In 1930, a fourth larch that had been felled by the wind had more than 2,000 growth rings.

Each of the three larches is distinguished by a unique feature: the tallest reaches a height of 36.5 metres with a circumference of 7 metres; the one with the hollow is the shortest, broken off at 6 metres in height, but with a branch that reaches a height of 22.5 metres; finally, the largest has a circumference of 8.34 metres and a height of 34.5 metres, with a peculiar growth that, when viewed from a certain angle, takes on an anthropomorphic appearance.

The shingles used for the roofs of the typical Ultental farmsteads are made from larch wood.

Photo © Geisler Martin