To learn about the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk, stop by this non-profit museum. In addition to a 15-minute film, there are scale models, and evocative period uniforms, weapons, photos and WWII-related objects discovered in the Dunkirk area. It's housed in Bastion 32, a 1874-built coastal defence base, which was the headquarters of the French and Allied Forces during the Battle of Dunkirk and Operation Dynamo.
Mémorial du Souvenir
Dunkirk
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
25.8 MILES
No museum gives a more balanced yet moving and user-friendly introduction to WWI history. It’s a multisensory experience combining soundscapes, videos,…
19.89 MILES
This is an unusually light-hearted WWI attraction. Reverend Philip ‘Tubby’ Clayton set up the Everyman’s Club here in 1915 to offer rest and recreation…
28.98 MILES
Probably the most-visited Salient site, this is the world’s biggest British Commonwealth war cemetery, with 11,956 graves. A huge semicircular wall…
26.69 MILES
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Langemark Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof
24.95 MILES
The Salient's largest German WWI cemetery is smaller than Tyne Cot but arguably more memorable, amid oak trees and trios of squat, mossy crosses. Some 44…
20.52 MILES
The unusual 1950 IJzertoren is built of drab purple-brown brick and topped with power-station-style windows. This colossal 84m-high ‘peace’ tower is at…
25.99 MILES
Every night at 8pm, traffic through the Menin Gate is halted while buglers sound the Last Post in remembrance of the WWI dead, a moving tradition started…
Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917
29.29 MILES
Within the grounds of Kasteelpark Zonnebeke you'll find this polished WWI museum charting local battle progressions with plenty of multilingual…
Nearby Dunkirk attractions
0.7 MILES
Set inside a 19th-century tobacco warehouse, this museum will delight fans of maritime history and, especially, model ships. During school holidays you…
0.75 MILES
Constructed in 1560, the Église St-Éloi was refaced with a neo-Gothic façade completed in 1889. It's dubbed la cathédrale des sables (cathedral of the…
0.76 MILES
Dunkirk's landmark 58m-high belfry – the bell tower of the original Église St-Éloi before it burnt to the ground in 1558 – was erected in 1440 and has…
0.76 MILES
Rising 63m high, this automated, first order port lighthouse is the highest of its kind in France (its beam can be seen from 60km away). The lighthouse…
1.17 MILES
Honouring over 4500 British and Commonwealth soldiers ‘with no known grave’, this memorial is next to the British War Graves Section of Dunkirk's town…
9.8 MILES
This cute popular theme park is based around Belgian TV character Plop the gnome and his friends. It's a kid-pleasing world of rides, roller coasters and…
10.77 MILES
This superb museum occupies the house and studio of Paul Delvaux (1897–1994), one of Belgium's most famous surrealist artists. What appears to be a…
12.14 MILES
Around 8km south of Veurne, the late-16th-century Kasteel Beauvoorde is an intact, picture-perfect (though tiny by castle standards), four-storey moated…