About this Tree

The Giant Sequoia of Maastricht stands within the cemetery along the Tongerseweg, a landscape shaped by memory, order, and long continuity. Planted around 1910 during the cemetery’s second expansion, the tree forms part of a carefully designed network of paths, sightlines, and monumental greenery. Visible from the public realm yet situated in a space devoted to reflection, the sequoia functions as a quiet anchor rather than a focal spectacle.

Known locally as a Mammoetboom and botanically as Sequoiadendron giganteum, the tree originates from the Sierra Nevada of California, where giant sequoias are among the oldest and largest living organisms on Earth. Transplanted into a European funerary setting, the species brings with it a sense of deep time. Its evergreen presence and slow growth set it apart from surrounding vegetation, establishing a different temporal rhythm within the cemetery.

The cemetery itself is characterised by strong axial structure and carefully placed trees that define space even in winter, through trunk, form, and silhouette. This sequoia was planted as part of landscape architect Liévin Rosseels’ design, aligned with one of several visual axes that give the site its spatial coherence. In this role, the tree is both spatial marker and atmospheric presence, shaping how the landscape is read and experienced.

Within the Treeline project, the Giant Sequoia of Maastricht is approached as a living mediator between deep biological time and present human presence. Treeline listens to how the tree registers wind, weather, and sound, and how its mass subtly alters the acoustics of the surrounding paths. The sequoia does not serve as a metaphor for memory; it simply endures. Treeline’s role is to make that endurance perceptible — allowing contemporary visitors to sense how continuity is held not only through names and monuments, but through living beings that quietly carry time forward.