The Planes of the Grote Kerk

These two London planes grow on what used to be a graveyard, the register's own note for the site reading simply planted on the former churchyard, a detail that explains why open lawn survives at all around a church this central. The Grote Kerk, Den Haag's largest and oldest church, has stood on this ground since the 15th century, and burials around it continued for centuries after, until the practice was banned inside growing Dutch cities on public health grounds and this plot became open space instead. The two planes date from around the 1890s, late arrivals relative to the church itself but still well over a century old, standing on the Riviervismarkt square that wraps around the building. London plane, a hybrid of the American sycamore and the Oriental plane, tolerates compacted urban soil better than almost any other large tree, which is likely why it was the obvious choice once the ground stopped being used for its original purpose. The trees grow in the open, free, on a square that still draws markets and events the way the site has for centuries, just without the graves.