Green Cathedral – Almere, Netherlands - Atlas Obscura

Green Cathedral

Almere, Netherlands

Lombardy poplars planted to imitate the size and shape of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims. 

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The grand Cathedral of Notre-Dame in France may be vulnerable to nature’s wear and tear when it comes to weather, deer is not one of its worries. 

For its horticultural counterpart in the Netherlands, the same cannot be said. Luckily, deer damage is easily remedied by simply planting more poplars—the Green Cathedral maintains its regal beauty, undaunted by nature as it is created from nature itself. 

Located near the city of Almere, the Green Cathedral is the living art construction of Marinus Boezem. The living land art project is made up of 178 strategically-planted polars intended to mimic the architecture of the famous cathedral in Reims, France. The mature trees stretch almost 100 feet into the sky, and the “structure” itself is almost 500-feet long and 246-feet wide. 

A popular place for weddings as well as funerals, the Green Cathedral was designed to have its own organic evolution, placed so that when the poplars decline, nearby beech trees will have grown in, shaping the walls of the green church once more. 

 

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