The Citadel of 's-Hertogenbosch is a fortress on the north side of the town center of 's Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands.

In 1541 a first attempt to construct it had been made with the assistance of the Italian architect and engineer Alessandro Pasqualini.

It got the name Fortress Willem Maria, after two children of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, conqueror of the city.

[1] In order to be able to defend the city-side of the citadel, in case that the city fell, an open area was required.

Without it, an attacker which had conquered the city, could simply move its siege guns into buildings near the citadel, and destroy its walls at close range.

Therefore 40 houses of the Ortheneind quarter were demolished together with the St Peter and Paul Church.,[1] totaling about 4 hectares of the city.

Ideas that the Republic simply demolished part of the town so it could fire on potential rebels are popular, but are not supported by facts.

[5] The confluence of the rivers Dommel and Aa formed the western boundary of the terrain where the citadel was built.

In order to prevent the city from overflowing in case of inundations, there were two dams in the moat of the citadel.

Of particular interest is that the map also shows the building near the north west gate, and calls it the 'Arsenal', just like Hattinga did in 1749.

In 1785 the inspecting Lt-General van der Drissen mentioned a 'Verbuswinkel', probably a corruption of 'Bushuis', which also means arsenal.

[7] During the first of the coalition wars against the French Republic, the territory of present day Belgium was lost in the Flanders campaign of 1794.

On 22 September 1794 the French army took the unoccupied Fort Orthen, about 1 kilometre from the citadel.

However, it's probable that the early surrender enabled most French emigré soldiers to march out in uniform together with the garrison on 12 October.

Commander Colonel Moulé de la Raitrie had been in 's-Hertogenbosch for four years, and was quite aware of how it could be defended.

On 15 December the Prussian commander Adolf Friedrich von Oppen crossed the Meuse.

On the contrary, in the night of 6–7 January 1814 a resistance committee published its desire to get rid of the French on the streets of the town.

The officers were free to leave on promise of not serving for a year, but the soldiers became prisoners of war.

Other measures were directed at creating the possibility to make the building 'bomb free', probably by packing earth against it.

[15] In 1854 the last phase of the reconstruction of the fortress started when work on the citadel's walls commenced.

It was a good place for this battalion on account of the citadel's isolation,[16] and there were many stories of soldiers attempting to escape.

In 1870 the citadel was 'mobilized' for the last time, but now it was only a small part of a fortified position that started at the 'Lunetten van Vught'.

The government remained owner of the citadel, but it no longer had a function in the city's defenses.

In March 1869 the minister of defense wanted to improve the scientific education for non-commissioned officers in the infantry.

In 1877 there was a suspicion of fraud at the course in Maastricht, and so that school was disbanded, and the students divided over the remaining infantry institutes in 's-Hertogenbosch and Kampen.

Now it became increasingly troublesome to navigate in the small space between Bastion I, which stuck out into the canal, and the water gates of the town's harbor.

He planned to change the main building and renovate the citadel, so a complete infantry battalion could be housed.