The Markiezeneik of Amelisweerd

An oak became a protest symbol and then won. The Markiezeneik stands in the Markiezenbos, part of the Amelisweerd estate on Utrecht's edge, and for years it was the named face of a campaign against a plan to widen the A27 motorway straight through the wood, a project that would have taken roughly 800 trees along with it. In 2022 the oak won Boom van het Jaar, the Netherlands' national Tree of the Year contest, with nearly 37,000 votes, then placed ninth in the European contest the year after, an unusually direct way for a country to vote on a road scheme. In March 2026 the country's highest administrative court, the Raad van State, annulled the underlying decision over unresolved nitrogen rules, killing the widening for now. The oak is still standing to hear about it: planted in the late 18th century by the marquis who then owned the estate, it carries the bark scars of an old lightning strike, healed over now with new growth around the wound. Free, public forest, open sunrise to sunset. Bus 41 from Utrecht Centraal reaches Oud Amelisweerd in about fifteen minutes, then a short walk into the wood.