Luxembourg, from Little Switzerland to the Moselle

Sandstone, castles and vineyards

The country is small, but the landscapes change quickly. North-east of the capital, the Mullerthal, known as Luxembourg’s Little Switzerland, is a region of beech forests and mossy sandstone rocks. The Black Ernz road runs past the Schiessentümpel, a waterfall in three streams below a stone bridge from the late 19th century.

Further north, the road follows the Sûre and then the Our, which mark the border here: the far bank is German. Vianden Castle appears round a bend. In the Éislek, the Luxembourg Ardennes, Clervaux lies at the bottom of its valley and Esch-sur-Sûre in a bend of the Sûre.

To the south-east, the road heads down to the Moselle. The wine route follows the river for 42 kilometres, between the vine-covered slopes and the German bank, as far as Schengen, where the agreement to remove border checks was signed in 1985.

Below the ramparts, soldiers dug tunnels into the rock: the casemates. The network once reached 23 kilometres, and 17 remain. The Bock casemates are open to visitors, on several levels, with openings over the valley. During both world wars, the casemates were used as shelters for the population.

In 1867, the Treaty of London declared Luxembourg neutral and ordered the fortress to be dismantled. Part of the walls still stands. The Chemin de la Corniche, on the ramparts, looks straight down on the Grund, the lower district, on the banks of the Alzette.

The sandstone of the Mullerthal

The Mullerthal owes its landscapes to Luxembourg sandstone, a rock formed from sands laid down in a shallow sea about 200 million years ago. Water and frost have cut it into blocks, gorges and narrow passages. Around Berdorf and Echternach, the paths run along the bottom of these cracks, as in the Wolf’s Gorge, between rock walls up to 50 metres high. Since 2022, the region has been a Unesco Global Geopark.

This sandstone was also quarried. The Hohllay, near Berdorf, is a large hall cut into the rock: the Romans are thought to have cut stone there already, and millstones were quarried from it in the Middle Ages. The castles of Larochette and Beaufort are built on the same rock. The Mullerthal Trail, 112 kilometres long, links the main sites in three loops.

What not to miss

1. 1The Bock casematesTunnels dug into the rock, below the old town.
2. 2The SchiessentümpelThe waterfall and its stone bridge, beside the Black Ernz road.
3. 3EchternachThe abbey founded in 698 by St Willibrord, and the hopping procession, listed by Unesco as intangible cultural heritage.
4. 4Vianden CastleA restored castle above the Our; Victor Hugo stayed in the town in 1871.
5. 5The Family of ManThe 503 photographs brought together by Edward Steichen in 1955 for MoMA, on display at Clervaux Castle.
6. 6The Moselle wine routeThe wine villages from Remich to Grevenmacher, and the view from the Këppchen.

Luxembourg in pictures

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Vianden Castle above the forests of the Our.

Luxembourg food and wine

The Luxembourg Moselle produces mostly whites: Rivaner, Auxerrois, Riesling, Pinot Gris, and a Crémant de Luxembourg. By the water, people eat friture de la Moselle, small fried fish.

The national dish is Judd mat Gaardebounen, smoked pork collar with broad beans. At markets you find Gromperekichelcher, fried potato cakes. Late summer brings Quetschentaart, plum tart. At Beaufort Castle, they make Cassero, a blackcurrant liqueur.