It was not a stork that delivered babies in Amsterdam, but a tree. A child born around 1400 who wanted to know 'where do I come from?' was told: 'we picked you at the Volewijk.' Legend has it that the Tree of Children took root here, among the dead of a gallows field. If 'the Volewijck barge had returned', that meant a baby had been "picked", and the birth had been a success.

Guilt & innocence

The Tree of Children was famous. It even featured on a print that many an Amsterdammer had on their wall between the fifteenth and nineteenth century. But the tree was not just some fable. It had a message. The tree was ripe with innocent souls, on the gallows beside it dangled dead criminals. This made the tree a symbol of innocence versus evil. It reminded city people to live a good life.