Museums in Den Bosch: Van Gogh, design and the city of Bosch

If you are looking for museums in Den Bosch, sooner or later you end up in the museum quarter on the Verwersstraat. Het Noordbrabants Museum and Design Museum Den Bosch stand side by side there, linked by a corridor. Den Bosch is the everyday name for 's-Hertogenbosch. Hieronymus Bosch lived and worked here and was a member of a brotherhood that still exists. Its house on the Hinthamerstraat is now a museum. In 1629 the city was taken after a siege, and an old powder house tells that story.

Het Noordbrabants Museum is housed in the Gouvernement, an 18th century palace that was once the governor's residence. You see work that Vincent van Gogh made during his years in Nuenen, paintings from the circle of Hieronymus Bosch and work by the Brueghel family. Artists from Brabant after 1925 get plenty of room too. Through a corridor you walk straight into Design Museum Den Bosch. It began as a municipal museum with a strong collection of ceramics and jewellery, and since 2018 it looks mainly at what design means for society. Together the two easily fill a morning.

Hieronymus Bosch was a member of the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, founded in 1318. Since 1484 the brotherhood has had its house on the Hinthamerstraat, the Zwanenbroedershuis. Inside you see sculpted niches from a 15th century altar to Mary, choir books full of Renaissance music and pewter drinking jugs with the coats of arms of members, among them William of Orange. A few streets away, in the Choorstraat near St John's Cathedral, lies Museum Slager. It shows work by three generations of one local family of painters, starting with Petrus Marinus Slager. It is small and personal, and that is exactly its charm.

In 1629 troops of the Dutch Republic besieged the city and took it. Museum Kruithuis on the Citadellaan tells that story in the last powder house from the Eighty Years' War left in the Netherlands. You do not only hear the conquerors: diary fragments and personal stories show what the siege meant for the Catholic citizens, whose faith was restricted for years afterwards. Water plays a leading role throughout. Just outside the city, in Vught, lies National Monument Kamp Vught, an SS concentration camp in 1943 and 1944. You follow the stories of prisoners and visit the last original barrack. Allow half a day.

From the station you walk through the old town to the museum quarter on the Verwersstraat. Begin at Het Noordbrabants Museum, where the Museumkaart is valid, and take the corridor to the Design Museum. Have lunch in the centre, then walk past St John's Cathedral to Museum Slager in the Choorstraat. The Zwanenbroedershuis is around the corner on the Hinthamerstraat. To see the city from the water, take a boat on the Binnendieze, the river that partly flows underneath the houses. Save Museum Kruithuis and Kamp Vught for a second day, or rent a bike.

Here are all the museums in 's-Hertogenbosch in alphabetical order. Vught and the rest of the region are on the map.

• Design Museum Den Bosch (in Dutch)Modern
• Het Noordbrabants MuseumArt
• Museum Kruithuis (in Dutch)History
• Museum Slager (in Dutch)Art
• Zwanenbroedershuis (in Dutch)History