The Oak of De Wielewaal

For a hundred years you could not come here. This was the private estate of Frits Philips, who built the house in 1934 and lived in it until he died in 2005, on land his father Anton had bought in 1912 when it was a farm called Het Zwarte Huis. The city bought the whole thing in 2022 for twenty nine million euro and opened it to the public on 27 September 2025. It is 144 hectares, three times the size of the Vondelpark, and entry is free. This oak was already standing when Anton Philips arrived. In 1850 the ground here was open heath; it was planted up over the second half of the century, and by 1897 the map showed pine wood cut through by avenues of oak. This is one of those avenue trees, which is why it is a good deal older than most of what surrounds it. The estate is large enough that the pin marks the surveyed position rather than a spot you can stand on and be certain. Come in from Oirschotsedijk and follow the old avenue lines; they are still legible in the way the wood is laid out, and the oaks along them are the thick ones.