Imagine that you are on the run to escape the horrors of war and have to go into hiding about 30 metres underground. During the Second World War, the people of Maastricht actually used the Zonneberg Caves as an underground shelter.

In a labyrinth that once comprised more than 20,000 corridors, an experienced guide takes you underground to see the names and drawings of people who worked here every day a few hundred years ago.

Learn how the expansive cave network was able to provide shelter for many of Maastricht’s residents during the Second World War. An evacuation area with electric lighting, a public address system, a bakery, toilets, chapels, a small hospital, water pumps, and many more facilities were all constructed underground, though never put into full use. Remnants of them can still be seen.

The caves have a temperature of about 11 degrees all year round. Keep this in mind with regard to your clothes and put on sturdy shoes.