The Linden of De Rollen

Groningen's oldest tree grows exactly where the national heritage register says it should: in front of the farmhouse at De Rollen, a moated farm complex on the city's northeastern edge, planted in 1684. That makes this Common Lime roughly 340 years old, standing decades before Groningen had a Noorderplantsoen or a Sterrebos to compete with. The Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed's own listing calls it plainly the oldest tree in the province, a claim the municipality's 2018 tree policy document repeats for the city specifically. De Rollen itself dates to the 17th century in its original form, rebuilt as a working farmstead in the first half of the 19th century, moat, gateposts and wooden bridge intact, and the linden predates most of what stands around it today, including the farmhouse's own current front door. Twenty-two more lindens and nine ash trees ring the property's edges, a documented perimeter planting, but none come close to this one's age. The farm still works the land, so the tree is not something to walk up to and touch. It stands in a private dooryard, visible from Noorddijkerweg itself, quietly outlasting three centuries of Groningen's growth from a fortified town into a university city, without ever once needing to move.