Vienna got a touch of Christmas on Wednesday with the arrival of a giant, 27m-high tree that will adorn the capital’s central Rathausplatz during the holiday season.
Rathausplatz, the square in front of Vienna’s ornate, neo-gothic City Hall, is home to one of the city’s most popular Christmas markets. The giant Christmas tree is a centrepiece of the annual festivities.
Though Vienna has plenty of trees — the city is home to the famed Vienna Woods — one of Austria’s provinces traditionally delivers a pine.
This year’s tree, about 100 years old, was felled at a farm in Gaming, a small town in the province of Lower Austria about 100km south-west of Vienna. The tree weighs seven tonnes and was transported to the capital with the help of two cranes and a truck.
”We are very proud that the tree came from us this year,” Gaming’s mayor, Kurt Poechhacker, told the Austria Press Agency.
The tree will be lit on November 13, when the square’s Christmas market opens. — Sapa-AP