The Heidenbaum

What stands at the Heidenbaum today is the remnant of a court tree, and the ground still shows how big it once was. The tree register describes a reduced trunk left from the old lime, with traces of its former size visible in the soil around it. The survivor is 4.06 metres round and only about ten metres tall, small for a tree with this much history attached. The history is the reason to come. This was the court lime of the old free county of Laer, whose court met "thor Lair thon synen Lynden", at Laer by its limes. The little hill it stands on served as a court and a burial place. Beneath the tree stands the Heidenkreuz, a cross of local Baumberge sandstone, said to recall the conversion of the region by the two Ewalds, the missionary brothers of the seventh century. How much of that this particular tree has seen is the open question. The register says about 500 years and Laer's encyclopedia entry says over 500, but nobody has measured it, and a figure that round is closer to tradition than to dendrology. The register names it a large-leaved lime; no second source confirms the species. It stands on public ground beside the street Am Heidenbaum at the edge of Laer, with a signboard explaining the site. If you know more about how old it really is, tell us.