A riveting vision of Hell — in a sweet little
A GIANT’S head protrudes from an archway, his mouth underwater and huge hooked nose mirrored in the still canal. On the opposite bank a horrible, cloaked creature with a bird’s-skull head plucks menacingly on his harp as we glide by.
So, when our boat rounds the next bend and I come face-to-feet with the naked figure of a man being swallowed by a blue monster with a copper cauldron on his head for a helmet, I am ready for the shock.
The narrow network of waterways in the little city of Den Bosch in the south of the Netherlands passes under its streets, and this year the tunnels are being transformed by cunning audio-visuals into the fiery furnace of the damned, writhing with tortured souls – all of which you can experience in the course of a Heaven And Hell cruise.
The bizarre creatures you’ll encounter have all leapt and crept from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, the artist famous for his vivid depictions of the diabolical consequences of sin. And to commemorate 500 years since Bosch’s death in 1516, his home town n is celebrating the history of art’s wildest imagination.
The main attraction is the Hieronymus Bosch – Visions Of Genius exhibition. n. It features almost every one of his surviving works, 17 paintings and 19 drawings of saints and sinners, angels and demons, which have been gathered from all over the world for the first time. This unique show will move on to Madrid’s Prado in May. The exhibition had me gripped, drawn into the goings-on in the triptychs and panels. It is a must-see, but there are many other reasons to visit Den Bosch.
The preserved, fortified medieval city is putting on a dazzling son et lumiere show in the Market Square, projecting images from Bosch’s works on to the house where he was born, his studio and his statue, every evening until December.
I also took the chance to climb a scaffolding staircase, 100ft up the side of St John’s cathedral, to view the moss-covered gargoyles and the statues of buffoons, imps and fretful souls adorning the building. The faces may be gruesome, but the views of the step-gabled roofs, church spires and the marshes beyond are wonderful, little changed since the days when Bosch was working on altarpieces during the cathedral’s construction.
If you don’t have a head for
heights, you can see some of the original roof statues in the museum next door.
Den Bosch is an hour from Amsterdam by train. I stayed in a loft-style boutique hotel, the Duke, with 17 rooms on the third floor of a former post office within earshot of the cathedral bells ringing at the end of the street. Market Square is at the other end, and smart shops and lively bars are within a short stroll.
Another earthly delight to tempt visitors is the local speciality, Bossche Bol, pictured below, a giant profiterole with a hard, dark chocolate shell and a soft, sweet, creamy centre.
Go on, be a devil, and try one – you don’t have to finish it!