From February – October 2016, people will be given the unique, one-off opportunity to view the fantastic sculptures high atop St. John’s Cathedral with their own eyes. Nationaal Monument Sint-Jan will provide guided tours through the cathedral’s gutters, 25 metres above the ground, to see the 96 stone flying buttress sculptures.

The cathedral was under construction during Jheronimus Bosch’s lifetime. The painter therefore never knew the cathedral the way we do today. It does seem however as if Bosch was involved in the design of a wide range of decorative elements. There is a striking similarity between the fantastic sculptures of mythical animals, musicians, dragons, buffoons and monsters, and Jheronimus Bosch’s work. He also painted panels for the altars and some of the murals are reminiscent of his style.

25 metres up, the views of the city and the Bossche Broek nature reserve are breathtaking. The cathedral’s high parapet combined with the wooden walkways laid in the gutters guarantee your safety. A visit to the cathedral’s richly decorated interior with its font dating back to 1492, the pulpit from 1560 and the fabulous organ from 1620 completes the visit. The adjacent museum, De Bouwloods, is dedicated to architectural history and iconography and has a collection of some 200 sculptures dating from the 13th to the 20th centuries that includes the model for the sculpture of Jheronimus Bosch that currently enlivens the market square.