Visit the bunkers along the West Flemish coast
The provincial authorities in West Flanders and Atlantikwall Raversyde have organised the third Bunker Day. All day today (9 June) numerous bunkers and bunker complexes that were built by the occupying German forces as part of Hitler’s Atlantikwall coastal defence project.
The Bunker Day is part of Creative Europe’s World War 2 Heritage project. Bunkers at 17 locations at or near to the coast are open to visitors. Among them are the artillery bunker at Blankenberge that is open to the public for the first time. The Cold War Special Command Bunker at De Panne is also open to the public as part of Bunker Day.
By far the best preserved piece of the Atlantikwall along our coast is at the Raversyde Provincial Estate in Ostend. There the entrance fee is being wave for Bunker Day. A special guided walk passing by relics of both the First and Second World Wars is also being laid on at Raversyde for those who are interested.
Elsewhere, the First World War “Hollandstellung” in Damme can be visited as can a former munitions depot in Zedelgem and the site of a former prisoner of war camp in Vloethemveld, all of which are in West Flanders.