"Museum ""Somme 1916"""

The Somme 1916 Museum is located in an old gallery dug in the chalky ground by the Albertines in the 9th century.

These hiding places, or "muches", were designed to escape Norman, and later Spanish, invaders. A few centuries later, Lahyre, one of Joan of Arc’s fellow soldiers, was imprisoned at Albert, called Encre at the time.

During World War I, the town of Albert housed a British garrison. It was the starting point of the offensive against the German lines. One of the most fearsome battles of the war took place in the Somme in 1916, with 58,000 men out of action in one day, on 1 July 1916. The medieval galleries were reoccupied. In 1918, during the last attack to take back the town from the Germans, the British army systematically bombarded the sector, wiping out the town.


In 1939, the municipality of Albert decided to rehabilitate the underground gallery to shelter the civilian population and avoid a massive exodus: seven air raid shelters were built.

At the end of 1991, the “Somme 1916” Shelter Museum project was born. Work on repairing and securing 250 metres of underground galleries took months. The museum opened its doors on 1 July 1992.

The “Somme 1916” Museum presents the life of the soldiers in the trenches during the 1 July 1916 offensive. Some fifteen alcoves and showcases have been set up in a 230-metre underground gallery used as an air raid shelter during World War II. Sound, light and pictures give the visitor a view of these soldiers’ everyday life. There is a shop.


“Somme 1916” Museum

Rue Anicet Godin - 80300 Albert

Tel: 03.22.75.16.17

Fax: 03.22.75.56.33

e-mail : musee@somme1916.org

Somme Tourism Committee

21 rue Ernest-Cauvin - 80000 Amiens

Tél. : +33 (0) 322 71 22 71

FAX : +33 (0) 322 71 22 69

e-mail : accueil@somme-tourisme.com

The Somme Tourism Committee will be happy to provide you with any information you may desire on the Somme Battlefields and the “Circuit du Souvenir” (Remembrance Trail): commemorations, access, transportation, guided tours for groups and individuals, helicopter flyovers, accommodation, etc... The Tourism Committee also publishes a range of brochures on Remembrance Tourism.

Somme Tourism Committee

The Somme 14-18

Somme 1916 Museum