YUKARI MATSUMOTO

De Linde van Sambeek, 2012 -

This is an ongoing project of cultural research about symbolized tree in the histories.

"De Linde van Sambeek" is a lime tree located in the municipality of Boxmeer, a town called Sambeek.
It is often called the oldest tree in The Netherlands, but perhaps it is just the oldest lime tree in the Netherlands. No one cannot say with certainty how old, because it is difficult to count the annual rings as it is a hollow tree. It used to be considered as 1000 years old, but according to recent scientific researches, the age is more likely to be 400 – 500 years old.

When I visited the Linden tree for the first time, the owner of a local bar told me that the land where it stands is privately-owned, but the tree plays an important social role in the everyday life in Sambeek. It is shared by people for years and years.