The dioramas
Specific battle moments rebuilt at full size.
Archangel12 — CC BY 2.0 · Thomas Quine — CC BY 2.0 · Thomas Quine — CC BY 2.0 · Thomas Quine — CC BY 2.0
That it is local in the literal sense. Most war museums display history that happened elsewhere; this one stands in the middle of the battlefield itself, its objects came out of the region's soil, and the scenes it rebuilds happened in the town's streets and fields. Visiting it and then driving twenty minutes through the surrounding countryside makes the battle tangible in a way a museum in a capital cannot.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.
The National Museum of Military History is in the town of Diekirch, and it turns on a single event that happened a few kilometres from its door: the Battle of the Bulge, the German counter-offensive through the Ardennes in the winter of 1944-45, in which northern Luxembourg was wrecked and its towns became the front line. What sets the museum apart is how it presents this: life-size scenes assembled with exceptional care — soldiers, vehicles, snow, rubble and sectioned houses — reconstructing specific moments of the battle rather than showing weapons in cases. The scenes are built from photographs and first-hand testimony of the moment each depicts. The collection includes vehicles, artillery, equipment and personal effects, much of it recovered from the surrounding fields themselves. A final section covers the post-war Luxembourg army and its part in international missions. It is among the best Second World War museums in Europe, and among the least known outside the region.
Specific battle moments rebuilt at full size.
Equipment recovered from the surrounding fields.
10 Bamertal, 9209 Diekirch