The vault - national World War II treasure room

At the large Van Schaik tunnel in Sint Pietersberg (Mt. St. Peter), lies national storage facility no. 9, better known as the ‘vault’. From 1942 to 1945, this space provided protection for a large part of the Dutch national art treasures. When the Nazis began fearing for an invasion via the coast-line, they started building the socalled Atlantic Wall. All the art treasures then had to be stored somewhere. The nearest bombproof shelter was in Sint Pietersberg. About 780 works of art – including Rembrandt’s Night Watch, Potter’s Steer, and Vermeer’s Street - were brought here and stored until the end of the war. Your visit to the vault leads you through various waiting areas, shows you the defensive corridor which surrounds the entire complex and, of course, the place where the Night Watch was stored. During your excursion, the guides will entertain you with anecdotes about the German occupiers as well as the resistance.