Holiday in Luxembourg City

About Luxembourg City

Luxembourg City, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a dramatic fortress city on a rocky plateau — a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1994. The Bock Casemates, a 17-kilometer-long underground tunnel system in the rocks, once made Luxembourg the strongest fortress in Europe after Gibraltar: the "Gibraltar of the North." The Grund district lies 60 meters lower in the Alzette Valley — a picturesque valley with half-timbered houses, riverside cafes, and the elevator that connects the lower and upper town. The old town on the plateau features the Grand Ducal Palace (the residence of the head of state), the Notre-Dame Cathedral, and the Place d'Armes as the social center. Luxembourg is the richest country in the EU (and the world by GDP per capita), home to the European Court of Justice, the European Investment Bank, and numerous EU institutions. The city is radically multilingual: Luxembourgish, French, and German are official languages, and the 128 nationalities in the city often speak English or Portuguese in daily life. The Mudam (Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, designed by I.M. Pei) and the Philharmonie Luxembourg (by Christian de Portzamparc) show that the city has more to offer than banks and EU bureaucracy. The Mullerthal ("Little Luxembourg Switzerland") with its bizarre rock formations is only 30 minutes away.