How many countries do you know that sport the same name for their capital?
Mexico City comes to mind…!
OK, yes, that’s it. And of course those too small countries that are just cities, like the Vatican….. but I don’t count them!
Then there’s Luxembourg City!
Of course Luxembourg is known as a very rich corner of our world, supposedly. But do you now it’s history?
The city was in fact founded in 963, that’s exactly 1000 years before my birth! Hey y’all applaud now because it’s a real wonder that they founded the city exactly 1000 years before my birth! How did they know I wonder?
In fact, Luxembourg City, with it’s vestiges of times long gone is a perfect example of European history. There are some views I Luxembourg City that englobe over a thousand years of history.
The hard thing for our city planners is to keep the right balance between modernity and the past. To be able to find that balance that makes a great small city.
Now I just have to make clear that I don’t work for the local tourist office 😉
It’s just that I lie this small place. With all it’s snall gems hidden throughout the different quarters.
A walk along the ‘Corniche’ (Wikipedia tells us that a Corniche is « road on the side of a cliff or mountain, with the ground rising on one side and falling away on the other >>. The word has been absorbed into English from the French term route à corniche or “road on a ledge”, originally derived from the Italian cornice, for “ledge”) makes you discover the ancient quarters in the deep river valley below and the more recent or even modern quarters of the upper city. All this together with fortifications dating from the middle ages to the 18th century.
In fact, until the final dismantling of most of the fortifications in 1867, Luxembourg was called the ‘Gibraltar of the North’. Not a small achievement for a small place!
Of course all this does not come for free! There’s a cost and a lot of work involved over the recent decades to preserve the unique characer of a great small city.
It’s a painstaking job to maintain the kilometres of old walls, of ancient buildings and monuments.
But it’s well worth it!
Thanks for stopping by!
Frank Lehnen Photography 
Frank, I really like the overhead shot of the city with the river running through. Where were you to take that photograph? Were you born in Luxembourg City?
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In fact I was on the ‘Corniche’ walk featured in the 5th photo.
And no I was not born in Luxembourg City but in a small village about 30km to the north. But as I work here all day and anything festive and social happens ‘in the city’ as we say, I have come to love the place.
Well there’s places I prefer, honestly, but more of that in some later post when I get the courage to tell more about myself.
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