European Capital of Culture 2007

Drink in Scott’s Bar by the Alzette River in Grund, go underground in the Bock Promontory or check out the exhibitions at the history museum. It’s not all banking...

A couple of weeks ago, your International Events feature writer had the pleasure of visiting Luxembourg’s capital city, which is currently the European Capital of Culture. This means that there are art installations and exhibitions all over the city – the gypsy exhibit at the city’s history museum is particularly good, for example – but what struck me was how beautiful the city is.

Luxembourg largely has a reputation for being a dull city full of bankers and politicians, but to say this gives it a monumentally unfair rap. Try walking along one of the bridges that span the gorges of the Alzette and Petrusse rivers and not be amazed at how stunningly green and well positioned Luxembourg is. It has been a defensive fortress for over 1,000 years, and the fortifications have been built into the natural landscape.

A fine example of this is the Bock Casemates, a huge network of underground tunnels built into the Bock Promontory by the Spanish occupiers in the 17th century. These can still be explored today (so long as you’re not the claustrophobic type), and amongst the dark underground passageways are various look-out points that give fine views of the valleys and the city’s buildings.

You can also see the suburb of Grund from there, and this is arguably the nicest area of the city. Right by the Alzette are a couple of cracking pubs that have a real multi-national feel to them – Scott’s Bar and Oscar Wilde’s, in particular, have a great vibe.

I’m not usually the sort to rave on about a city, but Luxembourg is one that’s well worth visiting, irrespective of its current European Capital of Culture status.