The Green Cathedral, Marinus Boezem

The grown green cathedral

The Green Cathedral is 150 m long and 75 m wide, and the mature poplars are around 30 m high. This land art project was installed in April 1987 on polder land; 178 trees were planted on a mound, half a metre above the surrounding area, reproducing the structure of the cathedral. This green cathedral is thus grown and not built.
Passways in stone and concrete were designed on the ground to echo the cathedral’s transverse ribs and supporting beams. In subsequent years, however, some of the trees were replaced due to damage caused by deer and other pests. Nearby, a clearing was also later created that exactly echoes the cathedral’s footprint.
Boezem chose this Gothic cathedral as his model, seeing it as the culmination of a man-made space. The outline of the cathedral is set in a forest landscape of immortal oak and beech hedges. Although the poplars die after a few decades and De Groene Kathedraal gradually falls into ruin, this cathedral will live on.