Museonder

Museonder calls itself the world's first underground museum, and it sits at the centre of Nationaal Park De Hoge Veluwe, beside the park's visitor centre. Its subject is everything below the surface of the Veluwe: the sand and stones that make up the ground, the water moving through it, and the animals and plants that live in it or once lived on it. Prince Claus opened the museum on 9 March 1993, entering by using a flint hand axe instead of scissors, a nod to the prehistoric finds that turn up in this landscape.

The building was designed by the architect Cor van Hillo and built in 1992 and 1993. Members of the Dutch motoring and tourism association ANWB collected 400,000 guilders toward the total cost of 3.5 million guilders, and The Hague's Museon helped fit out the displays. The idea was to let visitors experience the park from beneath, so the route leads step by step deeper down, ending symbolically at the centre of the earth.

The central exhibit hangs in the middle of the space: the complete root system of a tree that was 135 years old, suspended so you can walk around it and see how far roots spread through sandy soil. Around it are stones that tell their own story of origin when you lay a hand on them, a water laboratory and the bones of animals that lived in the area thousands of years ago, including the skull and antlers of a giant deer, Megaloceros giganteus. The displays show how the ice ages pushed up the hills of the Veluwe and how the sandy ground shapes everything that grows on it.

The museum also works as the park's main information point. Staff at the desk answer questions about walking and cycling routes and the park's museums, and you can book activities such as the guided tour of Jachthuis Sint Hubertus here. A visit is included in the park entrance ticket, so there is no reason to skip it if you are already inside.

Museonder suits families with children, who tend to like the tactile displays and the root system, as well as anyone who wants to understand the landscape before heading out onto the heath and sand drifts. From Hoenderloo, the trip in through the park's Hoenderloo entrance and on to the central area makes a natural first stop before cycling on to the Kröller-Müller Museum.