The House of Bosch

The building has a rich history. Professor Dr A.M. (Jos) Koldeweij wrote the following passage about the history of the building.

Jheronimus Bosch was about twelve years old when his father, Antonius van Aken, bought the house that is now registered as Markt 29 on 12 February 1462. The Van Aken family moved in and a painter's studio was established there. Jheronimus Bosch would live there and be trained as a draughtsman and painter until mid 1481. That year, he married Aleid van de Meervenne and moved to 'In den Salvatoer', a much larger house from his wife's family, which was close by on the north side of the Markt.

The house where the painter Van Aken lived and worked was called 'Sint Anthonis' in those years. It is tempting to suppose that Antonius van Aken named the house where he lived and worked and thus placed it under the protection of his own name saint. The building remained in the Van Aken family and was therefore also used as a painting studio until it was sold in 1523. Afterwards, it was inhabited by craftsmen, soldiers and teachers, among others.

Sint Anthonis, De Rozenkrans, De kleine winst
In the early seventeenth century, the house was called 'De Rozenkrans'. In the nineteenth century it was called 'De kleine winst' (The Small Profit) and it also housed a baker and a shop selling gallantry. This then changed to a shop selling religious articles and souvenirs, the last phase in the existence of 'De kleine winst' before it was bought by the city of 's-Hertogenbosch to be rehabilitated as the 'Huis van Bosch'.

Alphons Diepenbrock
The house had one other famous resident: between 1888 and 1894 the composer Alphons Diepenbrock (1862 - 1921), who at the time taught Greek and Latin at Bossche's municipal grammar school, lived here in a room on the first floor.

Residential
The front of the house, which is protected as a national monument in its entirety, dates from 1875. Behind this facade is the late-medieval Bosch House, which in the fifteenth century had a wooden facade with a cantilevered gable. At that time, the attic floor had the largest floor area.

The workshop was undoubtedly on the ground floor of the completely cellarized house. In the level cellar, remnants of the imposing corner house 'Melanen' have been found, which extended as far as Hinthamerstraat. This city castle was destroyed in the great city fire of 1419, after which it was divided into three houses. This probably happened well before Antonius van Aken purchased the southernmost property.

The cellar under the rear house had a stone barrel vault and there was also a yard cellar in front of the house under the pavement. The entire cellar was only accessible by stairs from the street. From the ground floor, the first floor and the attic could be reached via the still present spiral staircase. This oak staircase, the joists and the trusses of the roof date from around 1463. Jheronimus Bosch's father will therefore have been responsible for a thorough renovation of the house, where he and his painting family, including Jheronimus Bosch, lived and practised their craft for more than half a century.