The Plane of the Clarissenbolwerk

Bastion, water, plane tree. It is a combination the Dutch nineteenth century arrived at repeatedly and it works every time. The Clarissenbolwerk is one of the 1565 works, named for the Poor Clares whose convent stood nearby, and the moat that made it a defence is what now makes it a view. Zocher's 1870 conversion was built on exactly that logic: the water was already there and had already been shaped, so all a designer had to do was plant the banks and cut the paths. The plane is from about 1900, a generation after the layout, and it was chosen for what a plane does by the water. The trunk is pale and mottled, so it reads clearly against dark water; the crown is broad enough to overhang; and the species does not mind a high water table, which most large trees do. It is by the water near Zevenhuizen 23. The reflection is the thing here. Go on a still morning early enough that the moat has not been disturbed, and look at the flaking bark twice, once up and once down.