Markt, 's-Hertogenbosch

The first thing you have to learn about the city of 's-Hertogenbosch, which lies in the central part of the Netherlands, is what to call it. The second thing to know is that it is home to one of my ancestral families. Sunday was consequently my first-ever visit 'home'. The photo was taken across the Markt, or market square, where the daily market (not on Sundays) continues a tradition of several hundreds of years of enterprise and trade.

The city's official name is ’s-Hertogenbosch, which means 'the duke’s forest'. However, the commonly used name is "Den Bosch", or, literally, "the forest". The duke in question was Hendrik I of Brabant. In 1185, he granted the community on the Dommel River a city charter and the rights to trade.

The city’s best-known resident is the medievel painter Hieronymus Bosch, born in's-Hertogenbosch in c. 1450.