page_title: 's-Hertogenbosch
section_title: The fortifications
hierarchical_section_title: 's-Hertogenbosch / Attractions / The fortifications
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: 's-Hertogenbosch - Citadellaan - Vestingwerken This is an image of rijksmonument number 21949
context_page_description: 's-Hertogenbosch, colloquially known as Den Bosch, is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 152,968. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant.
context_section_description: 's-Hertogenbosch has an extensive and almost complete fifteenth-to-seventeenth-century city fortification. It was made to profit from the city's strong defensive position' laying on a sandy hill in the center of a large swamp fed by many rivers. This also caused that the main ramparts were preserved, because they were crucial in keeping out the water. In 2004 the city was awarded the title European Fortress City of the year. In the years that followed it restored many of the city defenses to much of their old glory. 
  Apart from small sections of medieval walls, the main structure of the fortification is a late-medieval (fifteenth-century) wall. The upper sections were removed when cannon became more powerful, and polygonal bastions were added, some after the conquest by the republic. Most of these have not been restored to their original height, but do maintain their brick walls. The citadel in the north west of the city does retain its original height. Around the city itself many other fortresses can still be seen.
  In the north east of the old city, the hexagonal powder arsenal, or Kruithuis, still exists, one of only two of its kind in the country. It is planned to become the museum of fortress 's-Hertogenbosch. One of the bastions of the fortress now houses the mini museum Bastionder. It has been dug out in a bastion of the south side. On the inside it shows a unique cannon, and an older bastion that was walled in by the current one.
caption: Citadel of 's-Hertogenbosch
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