WATCH: A new exhibit set to open this weekend in Halifax, aims to bring us a small taste of what it was like to walk through World War 1 trenches. Global’s Natasha Pace reports.
HALIFAX — The Halifax Citadel National Historic Site is always bustling with visitors, eager to learn more about our history.
It’s most associated with the Victorian era of military history, but the Citadel is getting set to open a brand new exhibit, one that will allow visitors to take a step back in time to experience the First World War with a simulated trench
“It’s real, it’s not virtual, this is real wood, it’s real dirt. This is how a trench was built, it’s the right dimensions. Trench warfare is an iconic aspect of the first world war so it’s one of the main parts of that story,” says Hal Thompson, Visitor Experience Product Manager at the site.
Thompson spent two years researching the idea for the trench, and has been building it since May. At 70-feet long, it’s believed to be the largest reproduction of a First World War trench in North America.
Officials want to give visitors a glimpse into what it would have been like to be a soldier 100-years-ago, and the conditions they faced.
“Thousands of Canadians served in these trenches and came out of this city, so we thought it was probably one of the exhibits to build, if we’re gonna build an exhibit on the first world war, this is the one that’s the most dramatic,” Thompson tells Global News.
2015 marks the 100th anniversary of Doctor John McRae’s poem “In Flanders’ Fields,” the most iconic poem of the First World War. McRae was instrumental in that conflict’s frontline medicine.
Officials with Parks Canada say the trench exhibit will help connect more visitors with our great war contributions and sacrifices..
“It really allows people to get a little bit more immersed and get a little bit more of an idea of what it would have been like for those soldiers in the trenches in the front of the world war,” says Danielle Hickey, Parks Canada.
The new trench exhibit officially opens to the public on Saturday and will stay open through the summer.
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