LA HOUGUE BIE MUSEUM

Some present the site of La Hougue Bie as one of the "most beautiful prehistoric monuments in Europe" and "one of the oldest". It is in fact a very beautiful Neolithic funerary monument, a dolmen with a gallery (about 20 meters) under a tumulus, which dates from 3,800 BC. The mound itself is 13 meters high. It has more than 60 vertically erected stones that support sixteen slabs. Unlike many other dolmens, here you can stand inside and fully experience the atmosphere. In the tomb to which the corridor leads, the remains of six skeletons have been found. On the long mound there are two medieval chapels: on the west side, Notre-Dame-de-la-Clarté, built at the beginning of the 12th century, and on the east side, the chapel of Jerusalem, built around 1520. La Hougue Bie is thus a pagan sanctuary on which, as is often the case, a Christian sanctuary was built. During the Second World War, the Germans built an underground bunker under the mound in which many workers died. Today it is a museum of archaeology and geology as well as a memorial for the victims of the occupation ("The slave worker memorial"). In this museum, the geological formation of the island is explained, and an overview of the history of agriculture in Jersey is presented. An amazing place, witnessing six millennia of the island's history and a must-see during a Channel Islands getaway!