Beneath the great square at the centre of Utrecht lies a hidden world of buried foundations and ancient remains, and DOMunder is the interactive attraction that takes visitors down into it to uncover two thousand years of history. The Domplein is the birthplace of the city, the place where the Romans built a frontier fort on the edge of their empire, where a cathedral later rose and where, in 1674, a tornado flattened the nave and left rubble that was simply buried where it fell. Rather than a conventional museum, DOMunder offers a guided underground expedition, equipping each visitor with a torch and sending them into the excavated layers below the square to seek out the traces of the Roman camp, the medieval church and the centuries of life that accumulated above them. In the darkness, beams of light pick out walls, foundations and artefacts, and clever sensors built into the displays respond when a torch falls on a particular object, triggering recorded explanations that bring the silent stones to life. The experience is part archaeology, part adventure and part detective story, designed to engage children and adults alike and to convey the thrill of discovery rather than simply presenting facts behind glass. Above ground, the layout of the lost cathedral is marked out in the paving of the square, so that the underground journey connects directly to what visitors can see at street level. Conceived to protect and reveal the fragile remains uncovered during work on the square, DOMunder opened in 2014 and quickly became one of the more original things to do in the city, often combined with a climb up the adjoining Dom Tower for a complete journey from the depths of the earth to the heights of the skyline. For anyone curious about how cities grow upon their own past, it offers a memorable and hands-on encounter with the buried foundations of Utrecht. Because the tour is led by a guide and timed in small groups, it retains an intimate, expedition-like feel quite different from wandering a hall of glass cases, and the use of light and sound to reveal the buried past gives even young visitors a genuine sense of discovery. The remains themselves, left in place rather than carted off to a distant store, gain meaning from being seen exactly where they were found, layer upon layer beneath the modern square. It is an imaginative answer to the question of how to share an archaeological site, and one that has won DOMunder a devoted following among those who visit Utrecht.

Type: Activity

Address: Domplein 9, Utrecht, Netherlands

Website: https://www.domunder.nl

Opening Date: 02/06/2014