Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
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YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW Editing | Katharina Brückmann YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW AVENUES IN EUROPE YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW Avenues in Europe Katharina Brückmann → 03 Avenues in France Chantal Pradines → 15 Avenues in Germany Katharina Brückmann → 19 The “German Avenue Road“ Christph Rullmann → 27 Avenues in Poland Piotr Tyszko-Chmielowiec → 30 Avenues in the Czech Republic Marcela Klemensova → 36 Avenues in Spain César-Javier Palacios → 42 Avenues in Sweden Patrik Olsson → 47 Avenues in the United Kingdom Pauline Buchanan Black → 52 Avenues in The Netherlands Bert Maes & Hans Renes → 56 Avenues in Belgium Koen Smets → 60 Avenues of Kaliningrad Region Alexandra Koroleva and → 64 Galina Raguzina Avenue Protection in Europe – Katharina Brückmann → 68 Projects between countries AVENUES IN EUROPE KATHARINA BRÜCKMANN 3 → © Ralf Ottmann AVENUES IN EUROPE KATHARINA BRÜCKMANN Introduction Avenues - A cultural heritage ree-lined roads in European countries represent shared The first drawings with trees lining paths are pictures of TEuropean landscape, cultural, and natural heritage. gardens from Egypt in 1400–1362 BC. Such tree-lined roads They are important green infrastructure that should serve were also known in the Orient and the Roman Empire. Europeans for centuries to come. This brochure offers an Pausanias (115-180 AD), a Greek travel-writer and overview on the relevant history and current situation in geographer, describes as a curiosity of the Isthmus, rows many different European countries. of planted, slender-trunked pines on one side of the path It is written by activists living in those countries, who to the Temple of Poseidon, as well as the painstakingly seek in many different ways to ensure that tree-lined roads avenue-adorned Quai at Alpheios (the ancient Greek name are protected. Some are members of NGOs. for Italy’s River Alfios). Likewise, racetracks used to be For tree-lined roads are in danger and in need of our bounded by tight and regularly planted rows of olive trees.¹ attention today, more than at any other time. Read what we In the 16th century avenues of trees reached Italian have to say here and make up your own mind, and please Renaissance gardens. They were "imported" to France, feel invited to join our group of activists, in order that the where they were soon described using the term "allée". After "green tunnels" may remain a part of our landscape. Try that, rapid dissemination across the Western world links also to infect your friends with some of this same passion. closely with the influence of the French style of gardening. Landlords would plant trees along the routes up to their What is an "Avenue" castles or palaces, using the distinctive appearance to mark Dictionnaire des deux Nations (1762) describes an allée as a ownership of the territory, for both their own benefit and walk in a garden or elsewhere. The path in question might that of travellers. be lined by flowers pots, bushes or something else. Thus an Soon avenues would move beyond the boundaries of allée originally had nothing much to do with trees. the garden or park, into the surrounding countryside. This Even though the term "avenue" is used differently in the happened within just a few decades and affected all the UK, and many countries use a similar word to the French countries of Europe. allée, in this brochure an "avenue" is taken to describe a France seems to have been the first country to issue a Probably the first drawing of a Central European avenue found road with trees on either side that may be in an urban area decree in this domain, under King Henri II in 1522. Other → on a painting by Isaac van den Blocke of 1608, in the Town Hall or a park, and may also concern small or more major roads states took similar measures – Saxony in1580, Hessen in in Gdańsk (Danzig). with roadside trees wherever they may occur. 1625, Prussia in 1714, Austria in 1763, Brandenburg in 4 AVENUES IN EUROPE KATHARINA BRÜCKMANN 1765 and Denmark in 1793 to name just a few examples. the wind or provided shade (PRADINES, C.: European Landscape Convention, 2009) in unsheltered sunny areas. In those days, there were various reasons making tree Moreover, they helped to planting along roads attractive or even necessary. For a start, prevent soil erosion caused by there was the shortage of wood caused by forest clearing, wind. They guided travellers wars, or harsh winters. Timber was primarily destined for and troops during snowy the army and navy, along with cartwrights and households or foggy weather, as well as (for firewood), and industry began to exert a demand from functioning as a protective the 18th century through to the first half of the 20th century. barrier. Leaves were in turn used to feed cattle and for sericulture, In the 19th century, branches particular of willow as material for furniture- and stagecoach operators in basket-making and fruits for consumption by people and Langres in eastern France livestock. complained that "there are Between 1596 and 1605, the Duke of Croÿ planted tree many gaps in the rows of trees avenues leading to his castle at Heverlee, now in Belgian along the roads travelled and Flanders, and also around the fields of his estate. In 1647, as a result there is nothing Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg planted six rows of lime to mark the borders of roads trees leading from his residence over a distance of 1 km – on dark nights or in the creating Berlin’s famous "Unter den Linden" boulevard. In snowy season. Travellers are 1667, garden designer André Le Nôtre created the Avenue suffering grievous accidents des Tuileries, which started at the Château du Louvre in in consequence. The Paris and opened onto countryside, with two rows of elms petitioners request that these framed by two rows of plane trees extending over nearly 2 km. roads be lined with trees in (PRADINES, C.: European Landscape Convention, 2009) those places where they are lacking, at the cost of the proper Willows in Sweden © Patrik Olssen But that was not all. Trees could also be said to have been authorities" (RAFFEAU, M., 1986). → planted along roads for safety reasons. Trees drained and But trees planted along country roads served, not stabilised verges and pathways used more and more often just practical purposes, but also a deep-seated aesthetic for travel by stagecoach. They also sheltered travellers from impulse. 5 AVENUES IN EUROPE KATHARINA BRÜCKMANN During his travels The various reasons for planting, and diverse regional in France between 1787 aspects such as geography, climate, soil type and fashion and 1790, Arthur Young combined to ensure the use made of a huge range of tree admired the French species. roads, as "much more like This is a living form of architecture, with the advantage the well-kept alleys of a over traditional architecture being improvement over time. garden than a common Furthermore, the arch formed when the upper branches highway" (RAFFEAU, M., meet above the road is often described as a "green tunnel" 1984). In 1802, Baron de or "archway"; the term "cathedral" is used in this connection Pradt expressed the view as early as in 1794. (PRADINES, C.: European Landscape that "[tree] plantations Convention, 2009) ornament and honour Artists have of course been aware of the emotive a country. What more associations with avenues of trees as an inextricable element impressive and at the of their beauty. They have inspired writers such as Theodor same time more agreeable Fontane, Hjalmar Söderberg and August Strindberg (whose sight can be offered to the poem Esplanadsystemet was published in 1883); painters traveller, be he foreign or such as Pissarro, Sisley, Van Gogh, Klimt, Munch and Esther even French, than these Almqvist, and sculptors, including Christo, who wrapped uninterrupted rows of an avenue of trees in Switzerland in 1998. (PRADINES, C.: trees which everywhere European Landscape Convention, 2009) provide shelter from the → Avenues to improve human wellbeing, the Dammchaussee sun’s heat and from blustery winds, presenting the road he Avenues - Europe's green infrastructure between Bad Doberan and Seeheilbad Heiligendam, This travels on in the same form as the avenues in his garden" Avenues are artificial, man-made landscape features which lime tree avenue was created for purely aesthetic reasons (DEPRADT, D.D., 1802). at first sight have little obvious to do with "nature" protection. in 1793 by Mecklenburg’s sovereign Paul Friedrich. The long and rich history of tree-lined roads reached its In fact, though, nowhere in Europe can untouched nature © Thomas Ulrich peak in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when in some still be found. But Europe still boasts amazing biodiversity, regions of Europe nearly every country road was tree-lined. the reason being the cultural landscapes existing in many This trend was maintained even up to the Second World War. regions of Europe for over 6000 years. There was a slow 6 AVENUES IN EUROPE KATHARINA BRÜCKMANN and continuous development of technology and a similarly Furthermore, there is in Europe, with its limited slow change in the cultural landscape, with the result that structure and cultural diversity, a wealth of different designs an abundance of native species were able to adapt and of the cultural landscape. Avenues are just one small stone in relocate from their gradually disappearing natural habitats the mosaic of European habitats created by human activity. to more or less anthropogenic ones. Yet these structures are of especially great importance for species in unnatural places (agricultural landscapes and urban areas) with poor biotope structure, in the way that they sereve as a connection between habitats. For example, a considerable share of all bat species may use tree holes as summer or winter quarters.