This year, Prague’s Old Town Square markets will be decorated with a 25-meter-tall, 58-year-old spruce from Kytlice in the Děčín region. Workers of the Prague City Technology Department cut it down on Sunday. From the Ústí region, it headed to a logistics complex near Prague. The journey to Old Town Square awaits him on Monday night. Along with it, another spruce is heading to the capital to decorate Wenceslas Square.
“At the moment, the tree is being tied up; it has to be tied up in two-thirds; it has to be measured with a tape and calculated so that the crane’s center of gravity is bearable,” explained Tomáš Jílek, chairman of the Prague City Technology board of directors.
“After it is placed on the truck trailer, the individual branches need to be tied. Each one must be tied with a washing line, tied to the trunk so that the rig will ultimately have a width of no more than 5 and a half meters,” Jílek added.
The tree headed to Prague via Český Kamenice and the D8 motorway
“Compared to last year, it is much more accessible here. There is a parallel road here, on which we have arranged a four-hour road closure in cooperation with the municipality and the administrative authority,” Jílek explained. Train traffic on the neighboring line was also restricted during the felling.
Dozens of local residents and cottagers did not miss the feeling. “We have a cottage here, so we didn’t miss it. We went to take pictures, and now we’ve come to see it being taken away,” said one onlooker.
It will head from the logistics center near Kralupy nad Vltavou to Prague on Monday night. It should arrive in the center of Prague around midnight on Monday. Police will be helping the company with the journey.
“We want to have it decorated by Friday,” Jílek said. The lighting will take place on the first weekend of Advent. “There is no exact time. We don’t want people to crowd around,” added Prague City Councillor Jan Chabr (TOP 09).
“This year, a tree is being cut down that has been selected for almost half a year given the need to cut it down,” Chabr explained. There is a road and a railway corridor, which are ten meters apart, and there is also a residential building about three meters from the tree,” he added. The spruce threatened the railway line and the road for motor vehicles with its roots.
They entered the tree in the competition last year, and it came second then. This year, the family tried again, and this time successful.
Record-breaking tree
This year the tree will be decorated with a total of 6 kilometers of light chains, a 200-centimeter spire, and 170 plastic balls. These are decorated in red and gold.
“This year, we have chosen such a classic concept without animated effects. We wanted it to be a pure tree because the massiveness of it will be three meters taller when cut down than in previous years. So we’re just emphasizing its almost perfect triangular shape,” explained Tomáš Jílek.
The tree will reach a height of 20 meters in the square, which is five meters more than the spruces so far.
The tree for Wenceslas Square grew right next to
This year, for the first time after the COVID period, the spruce tree will be among the Christmas markets again. Last year, the sellers did not even have time to open them because of a government decision.
This year, Christmas markets are also returning to the lower part of the reconstructed Wenceslas Square. This part of the metropolis will also be decorated with a Christmas tree. The 15-meter spruce tree grew on the adjacent municipal land as a tree for Old Town Square, so workers could cut down and remove both trees simultaneously.
“This is such a unique situation that there are two trees in one place that we are cutting down for the markets,” said Tomáš Jílek.
Workers will erect the tree on Wenceslas Square on Wednesday, and it should be lit up at the weekend.