Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. No purchase necessary. On a winding Vienna side street, one museum has turned their windows into a monument to history’s peace-minded heroes. Outside Stefan church was a place called "Stock im Eisen" and a boutique in which was a large portrait of a Danish King Frederik VI. This page was last edited on 10 June 2018, at 09:41. Follow us on social media to add even more wonder to your day. The custom disappeared sometime around the late 19th centuries, and so did many of these so-called “nail trees”. Stock im Eisen means “staff in iron” in German, and is the oldest known example of the tradition. Baroque celebration of the end of the Great Plague of Vienna. Sometimes, sick people would rub a nail on the afflicted part of their body and then hammer it into a tree hoping that the healthy wood would absorb their pain. Back in medieval Europe, hammering iron nails into living trees, wooden crosses and even rocks was a common practice, just as throwing coins into wishing wells or fountains is today. Photo credit: www.kcblau.com, Source: Wikipedia / www.spottedbylocals.com. © 2020 Atlas Obscura. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. In the honor of the lock and in his memory every journeyman kleinsmith who found work in Vienna had to hammer a nail into the trunk. The trunk is covered with iron nails so tight from the root up that one could not get room for even a needle between. The following 26 files are in this category, out of 26 total. © Amusing Planet, 2020. Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. All structured data from the file and property namespaces is available under the. Stock im Eisen means “staff in iron” in German, and is the oldest known example of the tradition. The park gets its name from a large tree trunk that stands in one corner with an iron fence around it. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository, Stock im Eisen (tr); Stock im Eisen (bar); Stock im Eisen (de); Stock im Eisen (de-at); Stock im Eisen (en); Stock im Eisen (hu); Шток-ім-Айзен (uk); Stok-im-Ayzen (az) monument in Vienna (en); Denkmal in Wien (de); szöges fatörzs, turisztikai látnivaló Bécsben (hu) Hauszeichen, Stock im Eisen (de). The nail tree in Vienna is the oldest one still preserved. Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. To learn more or withdraw consent, please visit our cookie policy. All Rights Reserved. Get a round-up of all our stories published during the past week delivered to your email every Saturday. The nails trees of Europe inspired a similar practice during WWI of creating patriotic “Nail Men” as fundraising projects and acts of national pride. The section now on display is about 7 feet tall, and is accompanied by decorative panels illustrating the history of the nagelbaum. BERMANN(1880) p0852 Der Stock im Eisen.jpg 334 × 1,051; 211 KB We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the world’s hidden wonders. A fairytale-like grove with a crystal-clear spring bubbling under the shade of a massive ancient tree. This is a category about public art indexed in a public art catalogue of Vienna (Austria) under the number: Cultural heritage database in Austria ObjektID: 19340, BERMANN(1880) p0852 Der Stock im Eisen.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Stock_im_Eisen&oldid=305599352, Cultural heritage monuments in Innere Stadt, Vienna, Cultural heritage monuments in Austria with known IDs, Cultural heritage monuments in Austria same as Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This category shows the protected monument with the number. The reasons behind them are not totally clear. On display since at least 1548, the tree is now located safely behind glass on a corner of the magnificent Palais Equitable at the corner of the Graben and Karntner Strasse in Vienna. It is a peculiar sight and this is the legend: Once upon a time there was a castle nearby with a gatelock that was so intricate that even another kleinsmith could not take it apart or unlock it. All rights reserved. Der Wiener Stock-im-Eisen ist der älteste noch erhaltene Nagelbaum, die erste urkundliche Erwähnung stammt aus dem Jahr 1533. Looks like that was a ritual for locksmiths! Its trunk is studded with hundreds of nails pounded over the centuries for good luck. There are significant gaps in the tree’s history, but written accounts indicate that in the 18th century people were still hammering nails into the trunk, especially by travelling locksmiths and their apprentices. At the corner of the extravagant 19th century mansion, Palais Equitable, in the city of Vienna, Austria, is a glass case behind which is the midsection of an ancient tree. The crypt of the imposing Stephensdom holds royal intestines and thousands of skeletons. This is awesome! {{posts[0].commentsNum}} {{messages_comments}}, {{posts[1].commentsNum}} {{messages_comments}}, {{posts[2].commentsNum}} {{messages_comments}}, {{posts[3].commentsNum}} {{messages_comments}}, The Adorable Custom of ‘Telling The Bees’, New York Moving Day: Mayhem on The Streets, Castellfollit de la Roca, The Hanging Town, A la Ronde: The 16-Sided House That’s Never Short of Sunlight. It was cut down around 40 years later. Nobody’s sure what happened to the felled tree for the next ninety-or-so years, until its name crept up in a written document in 1533. Located just off the vibrant Stephansplatz is Stock Im Eisen Platz were one of the most eye catching buildings is Palais Equitable, a wonderful building dating from the 19th century and located in the corner of the building is the " nail tree " which is a tree,glassed in with … These types of Nagelbaum or “nail trees” were common throughout southeastern Europe in the middle ages. Winner will be selected at random on 12/01/2020. Media in category "Stock im Eisen" The following 26 files are in this category, out of 26 total. The park gets its name from a large tree trunk that stands in one corner with an iron fence around it. Layer by Layer: A Mexico City Culinary Adventure, A Lockpicking Practicum With Schuyler Towne, Japanese 'Love Hotels' Are Kind of Perfect for Pandemics, In Nairobi, Young Diners Clamor for Traditional Kenyan Cuisine, California Is Named for a Griffin-Riding Black Warrior Queen, The Unsettled Legacy of the Bloodiest Election in American History, Inside Rome’s Secure Vault for Stolen Art, In Naples, Praying With Skulls Is an Ancient Tradition, Inside a Domed Pyramid With Astounding Acoustics and a History of Miracles, See the Mysterious Horned Helmet of Henry VIII, Searching for Home and Connection Through Typewritten Poetry, The Female Shark Spotter Protecting Réunion Island’s Surfers, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_im_Eisen, http://alikiphotography.com/2013/04/15/vienna-legends-nails-in-the-tree/, Imperial Vienna: An Account of Its History, Traditions and Arts By Amelia Sarah Levetus. In 1548, it stood at the corner of a small house that eventually gave way to Palais Equitable, which was built on the site in 1891. Follow us on Twitter to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Synchronicity of nails with reflection of building, Bestattungsmuseum (Vienna Undertakers' Museum). Offer subject to change without notice. It is thought that the practice of sacrificing what would have at the time a fairly valuable item, nails, was done as an act of thanks or in hopes of good luck. The tree in Vienna is a spruce, estimated to be over 600 years old, and the first nails were driven into it while it was still alive. It had been there for many a year and was still worth seeing being protected as it is by local pride. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. Atlas Obscura and our trusted partners use technology such as cookies on our website to personalise ads, support social media features, and analyse our traffic. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). Please click below to consent to the use of this technology while browsing our site. Consider supporting our work by becoming a member for as little as $5 a month. By then, it was already known by its current name Stock im Eisen or “staff in iron”, in German. The practice went on for approximately forty years before the tree was felled, possibly in the year 1440. This park contains one of the largest concentrations of cedar glades, a unique and rare ecosystem. This “living museum” at UCLA exhibits thousands of plant species from all over the world. See. Theodore Nielsen, a Danish Kleinsmith Journeyman mentions the tree in his memoirs published in 1856. The most pervasive of these is that the Stock im Eisen is the last remaining tree of an ancient forest which once surrounded the medieval city of Vienna. Related: The Strange Money Trees of England, Nail with tag from 1892. Das Original steht heute noch in Wien, am Stock-im-Eisen-Platz 3, am Eck zwischen Graben und Kärntner Straße, dem sogenannten Palais Equitable. The legend that Nielsen describes is just one of many that surrounds Stock im Eisen. Instead of fruit, the branches of this tree are brimming with hopes and dreams. Photo credit: Magdalena Niemirowicz/Wikimedia. Outside Stefan church was a place called "Stock im Eisen" and a boutique in which was a large portrait of a Danish King Frederik VI. The final resting place for the remains of 143 Habsburg royalty. Research in the 1970s dated the spruce tree approx 1400, with the first nails driven in while it was still alive. Once thought to have been the last tree standing in an ancient forest, or the work of Satan himself, hundreds of nails have been driven into the wood of this ancient tree trunk for reasons unknown.