Adam en Eva of Stoutenburg

Johan van Oldenbarnevelt held this estate from 1615 until the state beheaded him in 1619, and tradition says these two oaks were planted in his memory. The tradition is all there is. Erfgoedstem, which reported the pair's champion-class ranking, says outright that whether the trees really date from that era remains unknown, and the Bomenstichting itself will go no further than calling an age over 350 years plausible. What is not in doubt is their standing. The Bomenstichting ranks them as Bomen van Ereklasse, its top class, and the second most notable tree pair in the province of Utrecht. The thicker of the two, reported to be Adam, measures 6.60 metres round. They grow on the grounds of Landgoed Stoutenburg, an estate that goes back to the thirteenth century. Both are badly damaged and neither is coasting. The tree-care firm Copijn has worked on them repeatedly with Utrechts Landschap: steel cables bracing the crowns, the ground under them reinforced, a prop set under one heavy low limb. That is the reason to believe they are alive, being a running record of somebody keeping them that way. A closed gate stands between the road and the trees. You can see them from the Stoutenburgerlaan and you cannot get to them, so the pin here marks the place to stand rather than the trunks.