The Twin Giant Sequoias of Gulden Bodem

The hunting lodge these two sequoias were planted for has vanished without trace. The trees are still standing, roughly 160 years on, and are about the least removable thing in the park. Gulden Bodem was a private estate when they went in, probably around 1870, with a lodge and a coach house at its centre and a landscape park laid out around them. Both buildings are gone. The park survived, passed to the municipality of Arnhem, and has been a national monument since 2006, which means the ground itself is now protected. Giant sequoia was a status purchase on nineteenth-century estates across northern Europe. Whoever ordered these ordered two, and set them close enough together that the national register still lists them as one entry at one point, describing them as impressive, in reasonable condition, and clearly visible from the path. They stand near the car park, which is an unglamorous address for a species that can live past three thousand years. Treat them as the start of a walk rather than the end of one: Park Zijpendaal and its castle are a few minutes further on. Only the register has recorded these two, so the 1870 dating is one authority's estimate. If you know when the lodge came down, or have a picture of it, tell us.