![Postcard depicting an avenue in the Rhone Valley, 1933.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/titel-alleen-300x225.jpg)
Rows of trees with many different functions
Our cousins to the north and west boast hundreds of them: tree-lined avenues. Rows of trees are a defining feature of many French and German cities and rural landscapes. Here in Switzerland, avenues have never had the same significance. But they’ve always been here, though. One particular avenue of trees has recently been crowned Switzerland’s “Landscape of the Year 2022”.
![Avenue of poplars between Martigny and Brandson, 1926.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/allee-martigny-208x300.jpg)
For purposes of military strategy
![Thanks in part to Napoleon and his “avenue plan”, much of Europe’s landscape is still characterised by rows of trees.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/napoleon-1-240x300.jpg)
For quality of life
![Avenue of blossoming cherry trees in Mecklenburg.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/kirschblutenallee-mecklenburg-300x200.jpg)
![The maintenance of its avenues has earned the Val-de-Ruz the “Landscape of the Year 2022” award.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Val-de-Ruz-300x189.jpg)