Pyramid of Austerlitz

In 1804 General Auguste de Marmont had about eighteen thousand French troops camped on the Utrecht heath with nothing to do, and set them to build a monument to Napoleon in the manner of the Egyptian campaign: a stepped earth pyramid about thirty-six metres high on a sand ridge, dug and carried by hand in twenty-seven days, with a wooden obelisk on top. The camp village nearby was named Austerlitz after the battle of 1805, which is how a Dutch village came to have a Moravian name. The wooden obelisk rotted; a stone one was put up in 1894. The pyramid decayed and was restored several times, most recently in 2004-2008, and it is now climbable by a stair with a viewing platform over the Heuvelrug forests. There is a visitor centre and a reconstructed camp. It is the only Napoleonic monument of its kind north of the Alps.

What you actually see

• An earth pyramid of 1804 - about thirty-six metres, built by hand in twenty-seven days.
• A stone obelisk - the 1894 replacement for the rotted wooden original.
• A stair to the top - the viewing platform over the Heuvelrug forests.
• A village named Austerlitz - after the battle, from the camp that built the pyramid.

When to go

April to October. Two hours.

Honest expectations

It is one monument and a visitor centre - two hours covers it. Ticketed, seasonal, and closed on some weekdays in winter. The climb is a stair, not a path. Parking is charged.

Nearby

Huis Doorn is east; Soesterduinen and the military museum are north.