The sinking park

The trees around you stand with their roots above the ground, because the soil underneath is sinking away.

The Vondelpark was laid out on peat and the ground was barely raised when the work began. Peat compacts as soon as weight comes onto it, and it drops further once it dries out. The large trees play their part: in a dry summer they draw so much water from the soil that the peat rises above the groundwater and starts to oxidise. Elsewhere the opposite happens and rainwater stands on the paths.

From the start of this century the city therefore worked on a renovation, completed in 2010, that brought paths, waterways and planting back towards Zocher's design. Some of the heaviest trees have stood on foundation piles ever since, much like the houses in the old centre.

So this park behaves like a building. It was put up, it settles, and it gets maintained the way you maintain a house.

Follow the path east along the water, until it opens onto the large lawn where several paths come together.