Interesting facts

The spruce was once revered as protective tree. It symbolized the protecting female element and was a tree of life and mother tree. Spruces, as well as birches, were therefore often used for the tradition of the maypole. Today this is still the case in many villages of Baden Württemberg and some villages and towns in Bavaria. In shipbuilding the spruce provided the longest and best ships' masts. This use gained it a rather unusual tutelary god in ancient Greece. It was dedicated to the sea god Poseidon who was said to protect ships against storms by way of thanks for this dedication.

The wood of the mountain spruces growing in the low and high mountain regions is much firmer and more durable than that of the fast-growing plantation trees. This was no secret to the violin makers, who valued it highly as resonance wood for their instruments. Famous men such as Stradivari, Amati and Bergonzi often searched in the mountains for weeks until they found the right tree. In order to find the spruces that had grown slowly they knocked on the old trunks and listened to the sound they made.