The Chestnuts of Vijverberg

The Vijverberg exists because of a hole in the ground. When the Hofvijver, the rectangular pond that still sits beside the Binnenhof and reflects the seat of Dutch government in postcards by the thousand, was enlarged centuries ago, the excavated sand was piled up along one side, raising the ground into the low ridge that gives this street its name, hill by the pond. Rich families built townhouses along it from the 17th century on, most with gardens facing the water. This row of seven horse chestnuts, planted around the 1830s, lines that same historic ground today, tall enough now to shade the water they were planted to look out over. Horse chestnut is not native to the Netherlands, imported as an ornamental from the Balkans, but it became the default tree for exactly this kind of grand civic promenade across Dutch cities for two centuries running. The trees stand in the open, free, on one of the most photographed short stretches of pavement in the country, a few minutes' walk from the Binnenhof itself.