The Juttepeer of Heilige Geesthofje

Elderly women living in this almshouse have been making jelly from this pear tree's fruit since at least the 17th century, and the tree they are picking from is very likely the same one their predecessors used four centuries ago. Planted in 1638 in the inner courtyard of the Heilige Geesthofje, founded in 1616 to house women of unblemished character, the tree is widely considered the oldest pear tree in the Netherlands, a juttepeer, a small, hard, old Dutch variety better suited to cooking and preserving than eating straight off the branch. The courtyard itself functioned as a working kitchen garden for residents for most of its history, vegetables and fruit grown for the household rather than for show, and the pear outlasted whatever else was once planted alongside it. It still bears fruit every year, harvested and turned into jelly by the almshouse's current residents in a tradition nobody has needed to formally revive because it never actually stopped. The courtyard is not casually open to passersby; the almshouse still functions as a residence, and visiting means booking a guided tour through the Buitenmuseum, arranging an appointment, or timing a visit to the national Open Monumentendag, a small price for standing beside something planted six years before Rembrandt painted the Night Watch.