Hill 60 is well-preserved World War One site in West Flanders, and is one of the least-spoiled reminders of the region’s violent past. This is due to the very hilly countryside with its bomb and mine craters, which draws many local and foreign tourists each year – the result of the subterranean war waged using trenches and tunnels. When the site became the 1914-1918 Memorial Park it was redesigned with the greatest possible care in order to improve access for tourists and guarantee that the landscape was protected.
The design focused on the site’s special setting. The parking area was moved to the edge, where a starting point for visitors was built. From here a whimsical network of paths departs that is based on the location of the WWI trenches and that takes visitors across the site and past the wartime artifacts and memorials. The paths seem to float above the wartime landscape. The point where the opposing trenches are a mere 16 meter is a special experience for visitors, as is the grass embankment with its view of the towers of Ypres. Thanks to the fact that the bridge has been widened, visitors can now easily cross from Hill 60 across the railway to the Caterpillar. Visitors can reach the Caterpillar mine crater by using the path that follows the tunnel which was used to place the subterranean mine. The Caterpillar has been entirely stripped so that visitors can grasp the impact of this huge explosion.