Schuilen in Maastricht

Useful Information

Location:	Minister Goeman Borgesiusplantsoen, Maastricht. (50.844371, 5.678275)
Open:	MAR to OCT 3rd Sun every Month 14-16. Reservation necessary. [2022]
Fee:	free. [2022]
Classification:	World War II Bunker Secret Bunker
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:
Photography:
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Schuilen in Maastricht, Minister Goeman Borgesiusplantsoen 30, 6214 SC Maastricht, Tel: +31-43-3252121.
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

1990	shelters decommissioned.
2004	opened to the public.

Description

Schuilen in Maastricht (Shelter in Maastricht) is a museum located in the bunker below Minister Goeman Borgesiusplantsoen. The entrance is opposite house number 27 in the lawn of the park. There is a staircase into the ground with an iron door at the lower end. It does not have a number, the given address Minister Goeman Borgesiusplantsoen 30 is the one which is closest to the location. One of the galleries of the Kazematten underground was transformed into a bunker complex during World War II. It was restored to house the museum.

The museum focuses on the use of the marl mines as air raid shelter during World War II and the Cold War. The Air Raid Shelters were of great importance during World War II. The allied bombers were a great threat to the civilians, at the sound of the air-raid sirens many thousands of civilians gathered in the shelters. With the end of the war they were abandoned, but soon the cold war started, and so they were redesigned to accommodate several hundred people during an atomic war. It was decommissioned in 1990 together with other such bunkers after the end of the Cold War.

The Maastricht Tourist Office started guided tours of the Waldeck bastion Kazematten in the 1970s. Later they were extended to the Minister Goeman Borgesiusplantsoen and the use of the tunnels as air-raid shelters included. The shelters of the Kazematten were part of long tours and adventure tours, which started at Bastion Holstein and ended at the Minister Goeman Borgesiusplantsoen. Obviously this included only abandoned World War II air raid shelters, not the secret Cold War shelters. After the decommissioning those bunkers became accessible, and the one at the Minister Goeman Borgesiusplantsoen was restored by the working group Shelters in Maastricht…. They opened the museum in 2004 and volunteers are present to explain and answer questions, but there are no guided tours. However, if there are enough volunteers, you can ask to see the air-raid shelter in the casemates under the supervision of one of the volunteers. As the casemates are a different site with regular tours, it is not possible to visit the other corridors of the casemates on those tours, only the shelters.