The European site which display thousands of artifacts of European cultures has crashed several hours after launching. The site attracted more than 10 million hits per hour, which is twice the anticipated number.

The Europeana.eu website displays books, maps, paintings, photos, films, and manuscripts from 1,000 museums, archives and national libraries across Europe.

Currently, there is a message on the site that says “temporarily not accessible due to overwhelming interest after its launch”.

On Thursday, most hits came from Germany, followed by France and Spain. Four percent of online requests came from the United States.

The site is set to re-open in December once the technological improvements are in place.