By Rafe Calder
Den Bosch is known on this page for two things: a waterway you ride through by boat, and a pastry the size of a small fist.
The Binnendieze
The regional tourism board, Visit Brabant, describes the Binnendieze as a “fully restored” underground waterway, toured by whisper boat. Its guides, the page says, cover the restoration, the city’s history and the siege of 1629. The page gives the boat season as 1 April to 31 October.
The Bossche bol
Omroep Brabant, the regional public broadcaster, reports that the Den Bosch baker Joseph Johannes Lambermont advertised a chocolate ball in 1903, filled with yellow bakery cream, and advertised a version with “zuivere slagroomvulling”, pure whipped cream, in 1924. The article concludes that Lambermont can now be seen as the inventor of today’s Bossche bol, and it dates the bol at 100 years old.
A rival story credits Henri van der Zijde, a baker from The Hague who opened a shop opposite Lambermont’s in 1920. The article says that story has no hard proof (“geen harde bewijzen”) and comes from his relatives. It adds that the name “Bossche Bol” was rarely used at first. The earliest verifiable use it found is a 1933 advertisement by a Helmond baker, and people in Den Bosch still say “sjeklade bol”.
A museum in a former church
The Jheronimus Bosch Art Center says on its own site that it is housed in a former church dedicated to St Jacob, in a building designed by Stuyt and Cuypers. It describes a modern exhibition about the medieval artist.
What we left out
The cathedral, the town’s early history and the length of the waterway. We found no municipal or museum source for them.
Quick answers
What is the Binnendieze? According to Visit Brabant, a fully restored underground waterway in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, toured by whisper boat from 1 April to 31 October.
What is a Bossche bol? Omroep Brabant describes a chocolate-covered ball filled with whipped cream, and credits the Den Bosch baker Lambermont with advertising the whipped-cream version in 1924.
Where is the Jheronimus Bosch Art Center? In a former church dedicated to St Jacob, according to its own site.
Related on this site: zeeuwse-knop-zeeland-button-filigree, appeltaart-dutch-apple-pie-1514-cookbook, bakfiets-box-bike-linkage-steering
Roam first. Shop later.