The holy oak in Den Hout has experienced everything: from lightning strike to countless bridal couples pose in front of his trunk. But what the oldest oak tree in the Netherlands has yet is the title Boom of the Year. And on behalf of Brabant, he now comprises that title.
Those who enter the wood cannot ignore the holy oak: the meter -high tree that is hollow on the inside. The tree is estimated at just under 800 years old and is defining a defining way for inhabitants of the village. “He is retained miraculously. It is an oak that deserves our protection,” says Anita Razenberg, who overlooks the tree from her house. As a little boy, Koos van Arendonk already looked at the holy oak. “Everyone comes to the wood knows the tree. Den Hout cannot do without him.”
Jimmy Wolff gave up the tree for the Boom of the Year election held by SBNL Natuurfonds. “The special thing is that he is hollow inside. Yet he continues to live,” says Wolff, who lives opposite the old tree and sees daily what the summer oak loosens from people. “People stop to take pictures. Some even stand in the hollow space, because then something would happen to you.”
“A hermit would have lived in it who smoked eel in it.”
It is not for nothing that the tree is called the holy oak. According to forester Sips, this is because the faith and the tree are inextricably linked. “In the time of the Romans, the place where the holy oak is already important. There was justice and people came together.”
The Zomerik, which can be found at the intersection of Vrachelsestraat and Achterstraat, was probably planted around 1250. There are different myths about the holy oak. “The lightning was once smashed and sometimes a piece of the tree has been broken off,” says the forester. Wolff has another story that does the round. “There would have been a recluse in it who smoked eel in it. That is why the tree is black on the inside.”
The villagers are proud of their image -defining tree and are surprised that he is still there. “Despite the dry year, it sticks well,” says Wolff. The tree is still in leaves at the moment. “An oak tries to keep itself alive by repeling pieces. But it is sturdy,” explains forester Sips.
Together with eleven other trees in our country, the holy oak van den Hout has been nominated for Boom of the Year. Each province has one entry. You can vote until October 7 via This website. On October 14 we know whether ‘our’ Brabantse Boom can call itself Boom of the Year. In 2023, the Marialinde won the election in Oisterwijk.
