Christus doen kennen

Inspired by a group pilgrimage to Palestine in 1905, chaplain Arnold Suijs (1870-1941) established a devotional park in the hilly landscape near Nijmegen. Designed to function as an open-air museum and a pilgrimage site, the park started with replicas of buildings from the time of Jesus and a church modeled on the hall of the Last Supper (Cenacle). Visitors flocked to the park during the First World War and beyond, especially because the Netherlands was said to have been spared from war violence thanks to the Sacred Heart devotion. The consecration of the church in 1915 launched the park as Heilig-Land-Stichting (HLS) – The Holy Land Foundation. The HLS used the park to teach biblical history and increase the devotion to the Sacred Heart. Despite the high number of visitors, critics immediately objected to the awkward combination of science and religion. In 1933, the Sacred Heart statue at the entrance to the park was removed. In the 1970s, the transformation away from devotion to the Sacred Heart and into a Biblical Open-Air Museum was complete. Another change was yet to come, however. In 2007, the park was renamed Museum Park Orientalis and became a showcase for the three monotheistic world religions, as well as other religions and spiritual movements. Today, the park presents itself as ‘a modern place of pilgrimage where there is room for reflection and contemplation’.