La Coupole

Coupole d'Helfaut - Wizernes V2 Base

Useful Information

Location:	5 km from Saint-Omer, at Wizernes.
Open:	JAN to JUN daily 9-18. JUL to AUG daily 10-19. SEP to DEC daily 9-18. [2010]
Fee:	Adults EUR 9, Children (5-16) EUR 6, Children (0-3) free, Students EUR 7.50, Unemployed EUR 7.50, Family (2+5) EUR 19.50. [2010]
Classification:	World War II Bunker
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided, D=2.5 h.
Photography:
Accessibility:
Bibliography:
Address:	La Coupole, BP 284, 62504 Saint-Omer cedex, Tel: +33-321-122727, Fax: +33-321-392145. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1997	musem created.

Description

La Coupole is a gigantic underground bunker built by the Nazis between 1943 and 1944, to store, prepare and launch the V2 rockets. It is one of nine projects to built Sonderbauten (special constructions) in France for the deployment of Hitlers Vergeltungswaffen (revenge weapons). Here it was a the V2, the first rocket, which was used to raid London. None of those sites was completed. This site was destroyed only a few weeks before its theoretical start of operations. More than 3,000 tons of bombs were discharged at La Coupole and the ground looked like the surface of the moon afterwards, the cupola remained almost intact. Five meter thick walls of concrete were impossible to destroy completely. The remaining building was transformed into a museum about World War II.