Distinctive in architecture and its collection of Medieval sculpture, old masters, and contemporary art, the Bonnefanten Museum remains a landmark in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht. The name Bonnefanten Museum is derived from the French 'bons enfants,’ meaning ‘good children,' the popular name of a former convent that housed the museum from 1951 until 1978.

The museum’s current building, situated in a former industrial district, was designed by Italian architect Aldo Rossi. With its E-shaped floorplan and rocket-shaped cupola overlooking the Maas river, it is one of Maastricht's most prominent modern buildings. During the design phase Also Rossie wrote, “But now, just as if we were standing on theBbelvedere, we can view the museum as a whole, perhaps a lost whole which we only recognize thanks to those fragments of our lives which are also fragments of art and Europe of bygone days.”