's-Hertogenbosch

's-Hertogenbosch Den Bosch
City and Municipality
From top down, left to right: View over the city centre The city seen from the , Binnendieze canals, of Brabant, , , , Hieronymus Bosch, , St. John's Cathedral, ,
Flag Coat of arms
Location in North Brabant
Coordinates: 51°41′N 5°18′E / 51.683°N 5.300°E / 51.683; 5.300Coordinates: 51°41′N 5°18′E / 51.683°N 5.300°E / 51.683; 5.300
Country	Netherlands
Province	North Brabant
Government
• Body	Municipal council
• Mayor	Ton Rombouts (CDA)
Area
• Municipality	91.79 km2 (35.44 sq mi)
• Land	84.45 km2 (32.61 sq mi)
• Water	7.34 km2 (2.83 sq mi)
Elevation	6 m (20 ft)
Population (Municipality, May 2014; Urban and Metro, May 2014)
• Municipality	143,945
• Density	1,704/km2 (4,410/sq mi)
• Urban	169,714
• Metro	198,000
• Metro region	355,230
• Brabant CMSA	1,932,055
Demonym(s)	Bosschenaar
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postcode	5200–5249
Area code	073
Website	s-hertogenbosch.nl

's-Hertogenbosch (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌsɛrtoːɣəˈbɔs], literally "The Duke's Forest" in English, and historically in French: Bois-le-Duc), colloquially known as Den Bosch (Dutch pronunciation: [dɛn ˈbɔs], literally "The Forest" in English), is a city and municipality in the southern Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant.

The city's official name is a contraction of the Dutch des Hertogen bosch—"the Duke's forest". The duke in question was Duke Henry I of Brabant, whose family had owned a large estate at nearby Orthen for at least four centuries. He founded a new town located on some forested dunes in the middle of a marsh. At age 26, he granted 's-Hertogenbosch city rights and the corresponding trade privileges in 1185. This is, however, the traditional date given by later chroniclers; the first mention in contemporaneous sources is 1196. The original charter has been lost. His reason for founding the city was to protect his own interests against encroachment from Gelre and Holland; from its first days, he conceived of the city as a fortress. It was destroyed in 1203 in a joint expedition of Gelre and Holland, but was soon rebuilt. Some remnants of the original city walls may still be seen. In the late 14th century, a much larger wall was erected to protect the greatly expanded settled area. Artificial waterways were dug to serve as a city moat, through which the rivers Dommel and Aa were diverted.

The birthplace and home of one of the greatest painters of the northern Renaissance, Hieronymus Bosch, 's-Hertogenbosch suffered a catastrophic fire in 1463, which the then (approximately) 13-year-old Bosch probably witnessed; presumably, this fire provided inspiration for the fiery hell-scapes that would later make Bosch famous.