Luxembourg

Luxembourg City — a UNESCO World Heritage capital — is built on a dramatic sandstone promontory split by two river gorges (the Alzette and Pétrusse). The Bock Casemates (a 23km network of underground tunnels hewn from the rock over four centuries, housing up to 35,000 troops and horses, the most extensive military underground network in Western Europe) and the Old Quarter (Grund — a perfect medieval village in the valley far below the plateau city).

Luxembourg City has been described as the “Gibraltar of the North” — its rock fortress was so formidable that it was razed in 1867 under the Treaty of London to prevent it becoming a destabilising military strongpoint. The dismantling took 16 years; 24km of fortifications were removed, leaving the 23km of underground casemates as the only surviving military infrastructure.

The Chemin de la Cornière (“the most beautiful balcony in Europe” — a 500m pedestrian path carved into the cliff above the Grund, with views over the valley, the church spires and the Alzette river below) and the National Museum of History and Art (the finest collection in Luxembourg, with a Gallo-Roman floor, medieval art and a modern collection strong on COBRA movement painters).

The COBRA movement (Copenhagen–Brussels–Amsterdam, 1948–1951) was the most important post-war avant-garde movement in continental Europe — painters including Asger Jorn, Karel Appel and Corneille produced expressive, spontaneous work influenced by children’s art and folk tradition. Luxembourg’s MNHA has one of the largest COBRA collections in Europe.

40km from Luxembourg City. The Müllerthal Trail (112km of marked paths through sandstone gorges, through narrow clefts between 20m boulders, past waterfalls and beech forest) — the day section through Schiessentumpël (a triple waterfall dropping in tiers through a sandstone arch, the most photographed landscape in Luxembourg) and the rock formations of the Heringsberg.

The Müllerthal region is called “Little Switzerland” — a comparison to the Saxony Switzerland of Germany rather than the Alps. The sandstone formations were created when Jurassic sandstone deposited in a shallow sea was uplifted and then carved by glacial meltwater during the Pleistocene into the maze of clefts, towers and overhangs that characterise the region.

50km from Luxembourg City. The Moselle Valley — the Luxembourg section of the Moselle (from Schengen to Wasserbillig along the German border) is one of the sunniest parts of the Grand Duchy, with the Remich wine town, the Caves Bernard-Massard (champagne-method sparkling wine cellars open for tours), and the Schengen village (where the Schengen Agreement — which abolished passport controls between most EU states — was signed in 1985 on a boat in the river).

The Schengen Agreement was signed on 14 June 1985 aboard the MS Marie-Astrid moored on the Moselle at the point where Luxembourg, France and Germany meet — the tripoint visible from the Schengen village. It abolished passport controls between the original 5 signatory states; today 27 countries are in the Schengen Area, allowing 425 million Europeans to cross borders without showing identity.

80km from Luxembourg City. Vianden — a perfectly preserved medieval town in the Our valley below the most dramatically sited castle in the Benelux (Vianden Castle, 11th–14th century, restored, perched on a steep forested hill above the valley with a Romanesque chapel and the largest set of residential rooms in a Benelux castle) and the Victor Hugo Museum (Hugo spent time in exile in Vianden in 1871).

Victor Hugo spent three months in Vianden in 1871, in exile after opposing Napoleon III. He wrote prolifically during this period and his letters describe the valley as one of the most beautiful places in Europe. The house where he stayed is now a museum; he drew extensively and the sketches of the castle and valley are among his finest drawings.

The Luxembourg Ardennes (the northern third of the country, dense beech and oak forest with the Clervaux Castle — home of Edward Steichen’s “The Family of Man” photography exhibition, UNESCO Memory of the World, 503 photographs from 68 countries exploring universal human experience) and the Wiltz Amphitheatre.

“The Family of Man” (created by Edward Steichen for MoMA New York in 1955, the most visited photography exhibition in history — 10 million visitors in its original touring version) has been permanently installed in Clervaux Castle since 1994 in a purpose-designed UNESCO-listed installation. Luxembourg was the home country of Steichen’s family.

20km from Clervaux area. Esch-sur-Sûre — a village of 300 people in a perfect horseshoe bend of the Sûre river, with an 11th-century castle tower on the ridge above and the river making a 270-degree loop around the village below — one of the most beautifully situated villages in the Benelux. The Sûre River Valley walk back to Luxembourg City region. Fly from Luxembourg Findel (LUX).

The Sûre river makes a complete horseshoe at Esch-sur-Sûre — the village occupies an almost-island of land nearly encircled by the river, with cliffs on three sides and the castle controlling the only land access. The medieval village layout has not changed since the 12th century. It receives 300,000 visitors per year despite a resident population of 300.