A tree cathedral is an

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, m ...

laid out so the arrangement of the trees creates the typical architectural elements of the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-typ ...

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. ...

, and

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building with ...

s usually constructed from masonry in a typical medieval

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

. Examples of tree cathedrals include: *

Whipsnade Tree Cathedral Whipsnade Tree Cathedral is a garden in the village of Whipsnade in Bedfordshire, England. It is planted in the approximate form of a cathedral, with grass avenues for nave, chancel, transepts, chapels and cloisters and "walls" of different speci ...

in Bedfordshire, England. It was planted from 1932 by the lawyer Edmond Blyth as a First World War memorial, inspired by

Liverpool Anglican Cathedral Liverpool Cathedral is the Cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Liverpool, built on St James's Mount in Liverpool, and the seat of the Bishop of Liverpool. It may be referred to as the Cathedral Church of Christ in Liverpool (as recorded in the ...

. It was donated to the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

in 1960, and became a Grade II registered garden in 2017. * The tree cathedral planted 1986 at Newlands, near central Milton Keynes, to a design by the landscape architect Neil Higson, based

Norwich Cathedral Norwich Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Norwich, Norfolk, dedicated to the Holy and Undivided Trinity. It is the cathedral church for the Church of England Diocese of Norwich and is one of the Norwich 12 heritage sites. The cathedr ...

. * The ''cattedrale vegetale'' at Malga Costa, in the in northern Italy, a project commenced in 2001 (see ), and a second one at

Lodi, Lombardy Lodi ( , ; Ludesan: ) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, northern Italy, primarily on the western bank of the River Adda. It is the capital of the province of Lodi. History Lodi was a Celtic village; in Roman times it was called, in La ...

, for

Expo 2015 Expo 2015 was a World's fair, World Expo hosted by Milan, Italy. It opened on May 1 at 10:00 Central European Summer Time, CEST and closed on October 31. Milan hosted an exposition for the second time; the first was the 1906 Milan Internation ...

; both by the Italian artist {{ill, Giuliano Mauri, it.

References

Whipsnade Tree Cathedral
Historic England
Whipsnade Tree Cathedral
National Trust
Inside Britain's magnificent Tree Cathedral – and five more arboreal structures
''The Telegraph'', 5 December 2017
Tree Cathedral
The Parks Trust, Milton Keynes
Cattedrale vegetale
Arboreta