Almere boasts two main land art objects. Just outside the city, architect Marinus Boezem created a ‘growth project’ with trees. Polderland Garden of Love and Fire, by landscape architect Daniel Libeskind, is a garden which invites you to meditate.

Green cathedral
Tureluurweg, Almere

In April 1987 178 poplars were planted. In Reims, France these Italian poplars form a life-sized outline of the Notre Dame. The trees were planted where the cathedral’s pillars are, while paved paths indicate the vaults. The poplars make the Gothic cathedral grow, literally and figuratively. After the work of art has reached its zenith, it will die a natural death. Wedding ceremonies are held in the cathedral, you can enjoy a picnic in it or just a rest.
To preserve the shape and memory of this transient Gothic structure, a ‘contra cathedral’ has been laid out next to the Green Cathedral. This consists of beeches and oak trees and will live on forever.

Garden of love and fire
Pampushavenweg, Almere

Libeskind has laid out his meditation garden in a beautiful spot in the ‘town without a history’ of Almere. The garden’s five lines express distances in time and space, as well as relationships between people. The garden’s three canals ‘link’ three cities in Europe: Almere, Salamanca and Berlin. A concrete strip, the fourth line, bears a sculpture and crosses the three canals. The fifth line is a footpath with bridges across the canals.

Read more about the 100 Dutch Delights at http://www.1000dutchdelights.com/