The tree will travel to namesti Svobody on 19 November. Photo credit: MENDELU.
Brno, Nov 4 (BD) – Brno’s Christmas tree, donated traditionally to the city by Mendel University’s Masaryk Forest School, will be a spruce tree again this year after a break of several years. The tree will travel to namesti Svobody on 19 November.
Due to the size of the tree, this time it will not be transported by horses, but by a car belonging to the forestry company. The spruce is 20 metres tall, and the crown is approximately 15 metres at its widest point. The foresters estimate its age at 50 years. It will be the 33rd tree donated to the city by the university.
“The tree is located on a small pallet near Olomučany. It is much taller and wider than the ones before, so it will have to be shortened a bit for technical reasons. Technically, we are limited by the size of the hauler and also by the height of the trolleybus lines in Brno,” said Lumír Dobrovolný from the Masaryk Forest School in Křtiny.
The tradition of placing a Christmas tree in the town centre was established by the writer Rudolf Těsnohlídek, who, together with his colleagues, found an abandoned toddler while walking in the forest near Bílovice nad Svitavou on 22 December 1919. Těsnohlídek then established the Dagmar Children’s Home, which cares for abandoned children. There used to be a money box under the Christmas tree where people could donate money for the construction of the children’s home. “Because of this tradition, we are saying goodbye to the tree for Brno at the ŠLP Křtiny forest in Bílovice,” Dobrovolný added.
The Christmas tree’s journey will begin on Saturday, 19 November at 2pm, from the Myslivna Bystrouška fox farm in Bílovice nad Svitavou, accompanied by a cultural program and a handover ceremony.
ŠLP Křtiny regularly donates a Christmas tree to the city of Brno through the Red Cross. It also offers Christmas trees to individual citizens for their homes. Every year, several sales weekends are held at the grove, where visitors can choose and purchase trees that come from the Fox’s Woods, as opposed to those normally sold from plantations. More information about the forest and its Christmas trees can be found here.
