Photo : Clare Wilkinson / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Coupole d'Helfaut
La Coupole, at Helfaut-Wizernes near Saint-Omer, is an immense concrete dome of about 55,000 tonnes, built by the Organisation Todt in 1943 and 1944 as a launch base for V2 rockets. Never put into service, it was halted by Allied bombing and then by the German retreat after Normandy.
Turned into a museum in 1997, the site is today a history centre. Two visit routes evoke daily life under German occupation in the north of France and Hitler's V1 and V2 weapons, with an augmented-reality tablet offering 3D reconstructions. The account also traces the path from German weapons to the conquest of space, including the fate of the engineers recovered by the Allies.
A 3D planetarium, added in 2012, offers projections on a 360° hemispherical screen about fifteen metres in diameter, with 3D glasses and audio guides in several languages. It suits history lovers, families and the curious about astronomy.
