The Maria Hendrika Park is a park in the Belgian city of Ostend. The park - also called (He)t Bosje by Ostend residents - was created at the request of King Leopold II, who initially wanted to call the park Bois de Boulogne after the famous landscape park on the outskirts of Paris. Eventually the park was named after Leopold's wife Maria Hendrika of Austria.
The park was created on the site of an overgrown piece of forest, just outside the old city walls, south of the barracks. The design was by the German landscape architect Édouard Keilig. At the king's insistence, the Belgian government ceded the plot of land on which the park was built in 1886. The park was then 27 hectares in size. The first works were completed in 1892. The “Avenue de la Reine” now connected the park with the sea wall and the Royal Chalet, one of the wishes of Leopold II. At the end of July 1892, both Koninginnelaan and Maria Hendrika Park were officially put into use. The construction works had transformed the park into a recreational area where one could walk or ride on the constructed paths (with carriages, wagons and especially bicycles!). To further increase its attractiveness, a café-restaurant was built on the island of the pond, the “Laiterie Royale” (the current “Koninginnehof”, or colloquially still “t Laiterietje”). When constructing the park, sports and culture were also considered. A second drinking establishment, linked to a shooting club, was the Armenonville (still existing). A historical museum, the Museum Liebaert (disappeared), was built in a shed previously used by the sculptors of the Graaf de Smet de Naeyer bridges. The clubhouse of the local rowing club (disappeared) was located along the canal on the east side. There was also a swimming school, the Vrije Zwemmers Oostende, but this also disappeared during the recent renovation.
In 1896, the size of the park was doubled with the construction of the Mirror Lake and the Rabbit Pond. In 1913, football fields and a cycling stadium were installed. In 1975-1977, the Heilig Hartziekenhuis, now the AZ Damiaan, was constructed in a part of the east of the park. A new water tower was built in the middle of the park.