The Gebodenlinde of Hilvarenbeek
How do I find it? You can recognise it by the bench beneath it on the open Vrijthof square, 6.21 metres round and 23 metres tall. It stands beside the church, the water pump and the bandstand in Hilvarenbeek's centre.
Before a village had a noticeboard, it had a tree. Hilvarenbeek's aldermen stood under this lime to read out the local decrees, which is what a gebodenlinde is: a proclamation lime. It sheltered the linen market as well, and served as the courthouse tree. Its predecessor died in 1675 and the village did not wait around. A document dated 22 April 1676 records that a young lime had recently been planted on the Vrijthof. Whether the tree standing there today is that one or a 1704 replacement has never been settled, which is why the age comes as a band of roughly 320 to 350 years rather than a date. bomenbieb flags the uncertainty itself. Whatever the year, it has become substantial: 6.21 metres round and 23 metres tall, out on the open square beside the church, the water pump and the bandstand, with a bench underneath. The heavy limbs needed structural support in 1974 and got it. And it is still being arranged for. Omroep Brabant reported that the municipality is working out how to improve the tree's growing conditions, giving the roots more space, air and water. Three hundred and fifty years after the aldermen used it as their public address system, the village is still making decisions about this lime.
- Species
- Common Lime (Tilia x europaea)
- Girth
- 6.21 m
- Location
- Vrijthof (village square), Hilvarenbeek, next to the church (Hilvarenbeek, Noord-Brabant)
- Access
- Free. Stands in the open village square (Vrijthof) beside the church, water pump and bandstand, with a bench beneath it; fully public at all times.
- Getting there
- Hilvarenbeek village centre; nearest station Tilburg, then bus into the village.
The button above opens directions in your maps app.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
Discover more
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