Features
Fortress Luxembourg
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Fortress Luxembourg
The history of the city of Luxembourg as a medieval fortress is fascinating. Ringed by impregnable cliffs on every side but
the west, it was easy to secure the western approach by building a defensive wall. The narrow and rocky Bock promontory offered
the first natural fortification.
It was here on this narrow shelf, 300 feet above the Alzette valley, that prehistoric settlers may have established a camp.
The Romans built their own fortifications on the Bock and called it Castellum Lucilinburhuc. Then, in AD 963, Count Siegfried
of the Ardennes built his castle and linked it to the main plateau by a drawbridge. This Lützelburg, the “Little Castle,”
gave the city and the country its present name.
By 1050 a defensive western wall nearly 30 feet high, with numerous towers and gateways, protected the castle and the community
that was growing around it to the west. In 1554 a massive explosion of stored gunpowder destroyed much of the settlement.
New fortifications were built during a period of Spanish rule. They included excavation of the Pétrusse Casemates (Casemates
de la Pétrusse); the Beck Bastion; and the ramparts known today as the Corniche and dubbed the “Balcony of Europe” because
of the spectacular views.
In the late 17th century Vauban, the French military engineer, reshaped and extended the ramparts. In the 18th century the
Austrians extended them once more and excavated the Bock Casemates (Casemates du Bock). Such was the strategic importance
of Luxembourg as a fortification that all buildings on the Bourbon Plateau, where Gare (the modern town) now stands, were
built of wood so that they could be quickly destroyed before an attack on the fortress, thus robbing the enemy of cover.
On May 11, 1867, Luxembourg became an independent state. As part of the agreement, the city's fortifications were dismantled
or destroyed. At that time, the fortress walls enclosed an area to the west that was larger than the city.
What remains today are the Casemates, the retaining walls of the cliffs and numerous ruins concentrated on the cliff edges,
all adding drama to the city's already spectacular position. City boulevards and parkland lie where great walls and towers
once protected the western approach.
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