LuxembourgLëtzebuerg

In 963 Count Siegfried acquired a rocky outcrop, the Bock, above a loop of the Alzette river and built a castle on it. The town grew around it, and his descendants took the name 'of Luxembourg'. In the 14th century the House of Luxembourg reached the top of European power: four of its members became Holy Roman Emperors and kings of Bohemia and Hungary, and John the Blind, killed fighting for France at Crécy in 1346, is still a national hero.

In 1443 the line died out and Luxembourg passed to Burgundy, then to the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs, France under Louis XIV and revolutionary France. Each power strengthened the fortress: the Spanish dug the first casemates, the French engineer Vauban redesigned the walls in the 1680s, and the Austrians extended the tunnels. By the 19th century the city was one of the strongest fortresses in Europe, nicknamed the Gibraltar of the North.

After 1815 Luxembourg became a Grand Duchy in personal union with the Dutch king, while a Prussian garrison held the fortress for the German Confederation. It lost more than half its territory to Belgium in 1839 — today's Belgian province of Luxembourg. The Luxembourg Crisis of 1867 nearly caused a war between France and Prussia; the Treaty of London settled it by declaring the country neutral and ordering the fortress demolished.

Dutch personal union ended in 1890, when Salic law passed the grand ducal crown to the House of Nassau-Weilburg. Germany occupied the country in both world wars despite its neutrality; in the Second World War it was annexed, young men were conscripted into the Wehrmacht, and a general strike in 1942 was met with executions. After liberation Luxembourg abandoned neutrality, co-founded Benelux, NATO and the European Communities.

Luxembourgish (Lëtzebuergesch) is a Moselle Franconian language related to German, spoken by Luxembourgers at home and made the national language in 1984. French is the language of legislation, road signs and much of daily commerce; German is used by the press and as the first language of literacy at school. Most Luxembourgers switch between all three, plus English, without effort.

Nearly half the residents are not Luxembourg citizens. The largest group are Portuguese, who came from the 1960s to work in construction and industry and now make up about 15% of the population; French, Italians, Belgians and Germans follow, together with EU officials and finance workers from everywhere. Around 220,000 people commute daily from France, Belgium and Germany, so the daytime population of the capital nearly doubles.

Identity is expressed through the national motto 'Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sinn' — we want to remain what we are — and through small rituals: National Day on 23 June, the Octave pilgrimage to Notre-Dame in spring, and the Schueberfouer fair, held since 1340. Citizenship rules were eased in 2008 to allow dual nationality, and naturalisation now requires a Luxembourgish language test.

Until the late 19th century Luxembourg was poor and rural, and many people emigrated to the United States. The discovery of iron ore in the south (the Minett) and a new process for using its phosphorus-rich ore turned the country into a steel producer. ARBED, founded in 1911, became one of the world's largest steel companies and, through mergers, part of ArcelorMittal, still headquartered in Luxembourg City.

When the steel crisis of the 1970s hit, Luxembourg reinvented itself as a financial centre. Investment funds, private banking and holding companies came for favourable rules, and the country became the largest investment-fund centre in Europe. Satellite operator SES, founded in 1985, and a national space-resources programme added a high-tech niche.

Membership of the European project gave Luxembourg institutions far out of proportion to its size: the Court of Justice of the EU, the European Investment Bank, Eurostat, the European Court of Auditors and part of the European Parliament's secretariat sit on the Kirchberg plateau. The wealth shows in the highest GDP per head in the world (inflated by commuters) and in some of Europe's highest housing costs.

The north, Éislek, is part of the Ardennes: wooded plateaus cut by deep river valleys, with the castles of Vianden, Clervaux and Bourscheid and the Upper Sûre lake reservoir. It is colder and wetter than the south, and was the scene of heavy fighting in the Battle of the Bulge in winter 1944–45.

The south, Gutland ('good land'), is farmland and forest. In the east, the Müllerthal region has sandstone formations eroded into gorges and rock clefts, nicknamed Little Switzerland, crossed by one of Europe's best-marked long-distance trails. The Moselle forms the border with Germany, lined with vineyards producing Riesling, Pinot Gris, Auxerrois and Crémant.

The far south, the Minett, is the old iron-mining and steel country around Esch-sur-Alzette. Its red earth, disused mines and blast furnaces are being turned into a new university and cultural district at Belval, and the region was recognised as a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 2020.

When the fortress was demolished after 1867, the builders kept the rock and much of the tunnel system. About 17 km of casemates survive, and the Bock and Pétrusse casemates are open to visitors. The old quarters and fortifications were listed by UNESCO in 1994 as a rare example of a European fortified city shaped over nine centuries.

The city is built on levels: the Ville Haute on the plateau, with the Grand Ducal Palace and the cathedral; the lower towns of Grund, Clausen and Pfaffenthal along the rivers; and the Kirchberg plateau across the Red Bridge, reached by tram and a funicular. Free lifts, a panoramic elevator and the tram tie them together, and the Chemin de la Corniche along the old ramparts gives the classic view.

Grand Duke Henri, who had reigned since 2000, abdicated in October 2025 in favour of his son Guillaume, who now reigns with a largely ceremonial role. Government is led by a prime minister from a coalition in the 60-seat Chamber of Deputies; Luc Frieden of the Christian Social People's Party has led a coalition with the Democratic Party since 2023 — check.

In 2020 Luxembourg became the first country to make all public transport free nationwide, partly to tackle chronic traffic from cross-border commuters. Other pressing issues are housing costs, the balance between a finance-based economy and European tax rules, and integrating a population that grows by about 1–2% a year.

Luxembourg is also the country where passport-free Europe was named: in 1985 five countries signed the Schengen Agreement on a boat on the Moselle at the village of Schengen, where the three borders of Luxembourg, France and Germany meet. The European Museum Schengen tells the story.