Den Bosch: Charm to Live For
Spotted on a stroll down a random Den Bosch side street
I came across Den Bosch – formally 's-Hertogenbosch (don’t bother trying to pronounce it) – rather by accident while in the Netherlands. Or at least, I came across it incidentally because I stayed overnight in the city after a concert at the nearby music and event venue, Maintstage. The night after the concert I woke up and headed into town.
Also: Shout out to Mainstage for being one of those rare venues where the bathrooms aren’t horribly located and/or laid out. Kudos to the designer, architect, or whomever.
ACCESS:
Like every other Dutch city – yes, every – Den Bosch’s old town is adjacent to its main train station, set a bit away from it and flush to one side. This overall layout protects the city’s old town from too much foot, bike, and motor traffic. But in comparison to some other cities like Amersfoort or Nijmegen, it’s definitely easier to slide directly from Den Bosch station into architecture and surroundings that didn’t arise just within the past 20 years or so.
Leaving Den Bosch station and heading east into town, there’s a long, main drag leading away from the station and bordered by old Dutch buildings – the kind that New Yorkers might dub “town houses.” This strip leads directly over a bridge and into Den Bosch proper. Right from the get-go, this introduction to the city makes Den Bosch feel processional, refined, and even a bit magisterial – a feeling that sticks around the longer you stay. And yes, you can deviate from this main path by crooking south or north and tracing along canals and greenery interlaced through and around the town center.
As for access to the city itself, Den Bosch is located in North Brabant, at one convenient corner of an isosceles triangle of cities along with Breda and Tilburg. This threefold circuit of cities – each one less than 45 minutes away from the other by train – is easily one of the most conveniently compact and accessible areas of the Netherlands. There’s enough variation between the cities to make each place unique, and to warrant multiple or multi-day trips.
LAYOUT:
No doubt a tourist visiting Den Bosch will find themselves turning their heads this way and that way as they curve down streets and lanes going, “Wow, this place is really pretty!” And indeed, Den Bosch is a truly beautiful, well-maintained city.
Overall, Den Bosch is less medieval than a place like Maastricht, but has some of the same proportions and coloration. It’s also more expansive than nearby Breda but not inconveniently sprawling, which makes exploration easy and fun. Den Bosch is trim, neat, gorgeous, and full of typically beautiful al fresco cafes, canals, and green areas in the Dutch style, with an impressive dollop of museums and cultural hot-spots, to boot. In short, it’s excellent for living as well as visiting.
Den Bosch’s walk-able, old town even has a circular design that makes it extremely simple to find your way, see everything you want to see no matter your itinerary, and come across plenty of incidentals along the way. Plus, there’s just enough of a young, sleek edge to the place to compliment its overall, classy air. In short, if I ever moved out of the Hague to another city in the Netherlands, Den Bosch stands high on the list, if not at the top.
And yes, I’ve been back since the first time I stayed after that concert at Mainstage – not just because I wanted to, but because there’s enough to Den Bosch to merit multiple trips. If you’ve only got a couple hours, you can still get a taste of the city. If you’ve got a half day, then excellent. But if you’ve got a full day, an overnight stay, and maybe a bit of time the following morning and early afternoon, then even better.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Jheronimus Bosch Art Center
Some folks’ ears might perk up at the “Bosch” part of Den Bosch, particularly if they’re familiar with 16th-century artist Hieronymus Bosch (aka Jheronimus Bosch). Yes, Den Bosch is the city where Bosch the painter grew up and worked. And bonus: You can even visit his house and step through its rooms.
Bosch was known for his panoramic, biblically-oriented, detailed paintings of scenes of weird creatures doing weird things to people like in his famed “The Garden of Earthly Delights” (a simplistic take, but we’ve only got so much space here). In other words: If you ever wondered what it would look like if a fish-man blew a trumpet with his ass, then you’re in luck.
Located near the easternmost border of Den Bosch’s walk-able old town, the Jheronimus Bosch Art Center stands out as one of the highlights of the city. It doesn’t contain any of Bosch’s original work, but is rather a kind of walk-through tribute to the artist that contains reproductions of his work, life-sized sculptures of figures of his work on the floor and hanging from the ceiling, audio-video sections, multiple floors, and sections devoted to other, modern, surrealist artists. The art center has a brick-wall basement area for art classes accessible via an odd entryway built to look like a watery cave with a bridge. Braving some steep spiral steps, you can head upstairs and arrive at a tower at the top that provides a 360-degree view of the whole city.
Somewhat nearby at the edge of one of Den Bosch’s largest town squares (dubbed only “Markt”) sits Hieronymus Bosch’s house where he lived and worked. Tours are guided, or at least gated, as you move from room to room watching video footage projected on the wall and explaining what happened in that room. If you want to go you have to book a specific time, and there deals with the Bosch Art Center for reduced rates to either if bought as a bundle. Bosch’s house is a bit more for hardcore fans, but still worth the time if you’ve got it.
Sint Janskathedral
Let’s be clear: The Netherlands has a lot of beautiful, gothic cathedrals, some more well-known than others. It’s difficult for any one cathedral to outdo another – not that that’s the point, mind you – but still, the 13th-century Sint Janskathedral (St. John’s Cathedral) is a truly impressive and gorgeous stone cathedral that stands as the centerpiece of the city. Because of all the support structures needed to hold the thing up the inside is smaller than the outside suggests, but the structure still does what any cathedral’s designers intended it to: evoke awe and a sense of respect for the Almighty.
Besides the vaulted ceilings, pipe organ, artwork and chapels scattered through the interior, Sint Janskathedral even has a little Lego version of the church on display inside. To be honest, while I was there this little, ornate, Lego set-piece seemed to get more attention than the rest of the church. I’m not sure if the Lego cathedral is a regular, permanent display, but let’s hope so.
OTHER TO-DOS:
Het Noordbrabants Museum (The North Brabant Museum)
Het Bossche Broek (Nature Preserve)
CLOSING:
Much like other Dutch towns and cities, the greatest joy you could find in Den Bosch comes from just wandering around, letting things happen, and soaking up the city. Even though I mentioned itineraries, and I fully understand how people have schedules to keep and lives to live, if you’ve got the chance to just amble around town a bit, grab some kibbling (little fried fish chunks) and chips, sit outside of a café and have a beer, breathe, examine the facades of buildings and pace of local life, and think about those who’ve passed through that very space in centuries past … by all means do so. Some magic has settled into the streets of the city, and wants you to listen.