History and Civilization
Luxembourg is one of the most “truly European” cities in Europe. During your visit here, you will assuredly feel this unmistakable scent of ancient original Western Europe aroma. If you want to learn more about the spirit of Luxembourg and its tales, you’re welcome to visit its museums and other cultural centers of the city.
Luxembourg Culture
The Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art
- The MUDAM, as it’s often abbreviated, is a museum of modern art in southern Luxembourg. The museum stands on the site of the old Fort Thüngen, in the Kirchberg quarter, in the north-east of the city.
- The museum was inaugurated on 1 July 2006 by Grand Duke Jean, to whom the building is dedicated, and opened to the public the following day. The building was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect I. M. Pei, and the museum is directed by Marie-Claude Beaud.
The National Museum of History and Art
- With its name abbreviated to MNHA, this is a museum located in southern Luxembourg, as well. It is dedicated to displaying artworks and artifacts from all epochs of Luxembourgian history. The museum is sited in Fishmarket, the historic heart of the city, in the Ville Haute quarter.
- The first proposal for such a museum was made during the French occupation (the Revolutionary Wars). However, the museum was never opened, despite the expropriation of a number of artifacts from the church.
- After the affirmation of Luxembourg’s independence (the First Treaty of London in 1839), the inhabitants of Luxembourg became more and more interested in promoting the history of their country. In 1845, historians and archaeologists formed the “Society for the Study and Preservation of Historic Monuments in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg”. The society took over the responsibility of maintaining a collection of historic antiquities from Luxembourg City’s Athenaeum.
- In 1868, the Society received a boost from the establishment of the Royal-Grand Ducal Institute, one of its chief responsibilities was the conservation of archaeological collections.
Luxembourg History
- It all started in the Roman era, from a fortified tower guarding the crossing of two Roman roads that met at the site of Luxembourg City. Through an exchange treaty with the abbey of Saint Maximin in Trier in 963, Siegfried I of the Ardennes, a close relative of King Louis II of France and Emperor Otto the Great, acquired the feudal lands of Luxembourg. Siegfried built his castle, named Lucilinburhuc (”small castle”), on the Bock Fiels (”rock”), mentioned for the first time in the aforementioned exchange treaty.
- In 987, the Archbishop of Trier, Egbert (977-993), blessed five altars in the Church of the Redemption (today St. Michael’s Church). At a Roman road intersection near the church, a marketplace appeared around which the city developed.
- The city, because of its location and natural geography, has always been a place of strategic military significance. The first fortifications were built as early as the 10th century. By the end of the 12th century, as the city expanded westward around the new St. Nicholas Church (today the cathedral of Notre Dame), new walls were built that included an area of 50,000 m².
- In the 17th century, the first casemates were built; initially, Spain built 23 km of tunnels, starting in 1644. These were then enlarged under French rule by Marshal Vauban, and augmented again under Austrian rule in the 1730s and 1740s.
- During the French Revolutionary Wars, the city was occupied by France twice: once, briefly, in 1792–3, and, later, after a seven-month siege. Luxembourg held out for so long under the French siege that French politician and military engineer Lazare Carnot called Luxembourg “the best [fortress] in the world, except Gibraltar”, hence the city’s nickname: the ‘Gibraltar of the North’.
- When, in 1890, Grand Duke William III died without any male heirs, the Grand Duchy passed out of Dutch hands, and into an independent line under Grand Duke Adolphe. Thus, Luxembourg, which had hitherto been independent in theory only, became a truly independent country, and Luxembourg City regained some of the importance that it had lost in 1867 by becoming the capital of a fully independent state.
- In 1921, the city limits were greatly expanded. The communes of Eich, Hamm, Hollerich, and Rollingergrund were annexed into Luxembourg City, making the city the largest commune in the country (a position that it would hold until 1978).
- In 1940, Germany occupied Luxembourg (as in WW I). The Nazis were not prepared to allow Luxembourgers self-government, and gradually integrated Luxembourg into the Third Reich until it annexed the Grand Duchy, on 30 August 1942. Luxembourg City was liberated on 10 September 1944.
- After the war, Luxembourg ended its neutrality, and became a founding member of several inter-governmental and supra-governmental institutions. In 1952, the city became the headquarters of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community. In 1967, the High Authority was merged with the commissions of the other European institutions; although Luxembourg City would no longer be the seat of the ECSC, it would play host to some part-sessions of the European Parliament until 1981. Luxembourg remains the seat of the European Parliament’s secretariat, as well as the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Auditors, and the European Investment Bank. Several departments of the European Commission are also based in Luxembourg.