The Copper Beech at the Zonnehof
roughly 135 to 145 years, from the register's planting band of 1880 to 1890Copper Beech
Which one is it? On the northeast side of the building at Zonnehof 2, a full-sized purple beech in an open paved setting.
The Zonnehof is a piece of open ground on the edge of the old centre that the twentieth century got hold of, and this beech was standing before any of it. Banded 1880 to 1890, it belongs to the villa gardens that lined the Utrechtseweg when this was the smart approach to the city rather than a through road. Those gardens have gone. The beech is on the northeast side of Zonnehof 2, behind the building that fronts the Utrechtseweg, which is to say in the gap between two eras of construction. Standing under a copper beech in a city is a specific experience worth going out of your way for. The leaves are thin and the purple pigment is a filter rather than a coating, so strong light coming through a mature canopy arrives underneath as a deep wine red. Photographs never get it because a camera corrects it away. You have to be under it, and it wants a bright day. This one is a short walk from the plane on the Snouckaertlaan and from the beech behind the Amershof, so all three fit into twenty minutes. The fourth week of October, if you want it at full colour.
The button above opens directions in your maps app. About 500 m southeast of Amersfoort station, at the Zonnehof.
- Species
- Copper Beech (Fagus sylvatica f. purpurea)
- Age estimate
- roughly 135 to 145 years, from the register's planting band of 1880 to 1890
- Location
- Northeast side of Zonnehof 2, behind the building on the Utrechtseweg (Zonnehof)
- Access
- Free. Reachable on foot from the Zonnehof, open at any time.
- Getting there
- About 500 m southeast of Amersfoort station, at the Zonnehof.
Trees nearby
Ticking this one off, walks past several more, and your collection growing city by city: that is the Ancient Trees app.
Get the appThis page was researched from a distance. If you know this tree, you know things we do not: the species, the age, the size, whether the photo shows the right tree, or that it is gone. Every field on this page can be corrected.
Correct a detail on this pageSuggest another tree