The Sanctuary Wood (Hill 62) Museum

First World War
the_hill_62_museum

This museum is owned by the Schier family.  When Mr. Schier returned to his ruined property in 1919, it was criss-crossed with trenches, shell holes, and artifacts from the war.  Schier decided to leave the ground as it was and turn it into a museum.  He built a small building, started collecting artifacts.  He even began giving battlefield tours to the first groups of tourists in the 1920s, mostly soldiers and relatives of the dead.  In the interwar period, the museum was quite famous.  Herman Goering himself came to see it during the Second World War.  Today, it still contains the artifacts that Schier collected, and the trenches are still preserved.  It also has some very interesting 3-D viewing machines which date from the interwar period.  It is situated three miles east of Ieper on the road leading to the Hill 62 Canadian War Memorial and the Sanctuary Wood British cemetery. The museum does not have a website.