(Péronne – Somme – France)
The Historial Museum of the Great War is an internationally acclaimed museum that explains the Great War in a different manner.
Located on the very site of the bloodiest battle of the First World War, the museum presents and compares the three main belligerent nations on the Western Front – Great Britain, France and Germany. It recaptures the mentalities of the front and of the civilians to shows how these were drastically modified by the war.
The Somme in 1916 was the biggest battle of the First World War with over a million casualties in less than five months of fighting. The losses totalled 420,000 for the British, 420,000 for the Germans and 200,000 for the French. The battle is most remembered for its first day: on 1 July 1916 more than 19,000 British men were killed and 40,000 others were wounded. That day still is the bloodiest in the entire history of the British army.
The ground would be fought over again during the 1918 battles. By the end of the war combatants from well over twenty-five nations had fought on the Somme, perhaps making it the place that best describes the World War. Americans, Australians, Canadians, Chinese, Indians, Irishmen, Moroccans, New Zealanders, Senegalese, South Africans ... had all come to the Somme.
The Historial museum of the Great War explains these events in the wider context of the war.
The visitor can discover the Great War from its root causes to its lasting consequences.
Through their moving display, favouring both understanding and emotion, the five main rooms illustrate life in the lines and on the home front. The weapons, uniforms, military gear and personal objects are displayed in the centre of the rooms: placed in shallow pits in the floor, they powerfully evoke the men’s sufferings. The showcases around the galleries display civilian artefacts showing the lives, tools and games of the women and children.
The chronological display makes it possible to understand the attitudes of the times and see how the war changed the world for ever. Visitors can also reflect on today’s world and its challenges.
The museum is unique as it systematically compares the three main nations on the Western Front. For each theme, the visitors can see the differences as well as the similarities in the ways Great Britain, France and Germany mobilised their populations for war.
It is one of the biggest public collections devoted to the First World War: the museum keeps over 70,000 items including more than 1,000 posters. Most visitors remember the impressive etchings by Otto Dix “The War”. These fifty pictures show the artist’s war experience, mostly on the Somme, and are a monument to the men’s suffering. This complete series is unique in public collections.
For all these reasons, as well as its Le Corbusier-inspired architecture subtly combining with the brick château, the Historial was given the European Museum of the Year Award in 1994.
Open every day from 10 am to 6 pm (The museum closes one month every year between mid-December and mid-January)
Museum in three languages
Free audio guides are available in English, French, German and Dutch
Admission free for temporary exhibitions.
The book and souvenirs shop and the museum café welcome all.
CULTURAL EVENTS all year long. Consult our programme on our website: www.historial.org
Historial de la Grande Guerre – Château de Péronne – BP 20063 - 80201 Péronne cedex - FRANCE
Tel. +33 (0)3 22 83 14 18 – Fax +33 (0)3 22 83 54 18
www.historial.org– info@historial.org
Run by the Historial, the Thiepval Visitor Centre offers full facilities for the thousands of visitors to the Memorial: a shop, an AV theatre, and a presentation about the Memorial and what happened there during the war.