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Second part of a two part film
The city centre occupies a picturesque site on a salient, perched high atop precipitous cliffs that drop into the narrow valleys of the Alzette and
Pétrusse rivers, which find their confluence at
Luxembourg City. The 70 m deep gorges cut by the rivers are spanned by many bridges and viaducts, including the
Adolphe Bridge, the
Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge, and the
Passerelle. Although Luxembourg City is not particularly large, its layout is complex, as the city is set on several levels, straddling hills and dropping into the two gorges.
n the
Roman era, a fortified tower guarded the crossing of two
Roman roads that met at the site of
Luxembourg city. Through an exchange treaty with the abbey of
Saint Maximin in
Trier in 963,
Siegfried I of the
Ardennes acquired the feudal lands of
Luxembourg.
Siegfried built his castle, named Lucilinburhuc ("small castle"), on the
Bock Fiels ("rock").
The city, for reasons of its location and natural geography, has through history been a place of strategic military significance. The first fortifications were built as early as the
10th century.
In about 1340, new fortifications were built that stood until 1867
.
In the 17th century, the first casemates were built; initially,
Spain built 23 km of tunnels, starting in 1644] These were then enlarged under
French rule by
Marshal Vauban, and augmented again under
Austrian rule in the 1730s and 1740s.
During the
French Revolutionary Wars, the city was occupied by
France twice: once, briefly, in 17923, and, later, after a seven-month siege. Luxembourg held out for so long under the French siege that
French politician and military engineer
Lazare Carnot called Luxembourg "the best [fortress] in the world, except
Gibraltar".
Tthe Austrian garrison eventually surrendered, and, as a consequence, Luxembourg was annexed into the
French Republic as part of the département of
Forêts, with Luxembourg City as its préfecture. Under the 1815
Treaty of Paris, which ended the
Napoleonic Wars, Luxembourg City was placed under Prussian military control as a part of the
German Confederation, although sovereignty passed to the
House of Orange-Nassau.
After the
Luxembourg Crisis, the
1867 Treaty of London required Luxembourg to dismantle the fortifications in Luxembourg City.
When, in 1890,
Grand Duke William III died without any male heirs, the
Grand Duchy passed out of
Dutch hands, and into an independent line under
Grand Duke Adolphe. Thus, Luxembourg, which had hitherto been independent in theory only, became a truly independent country, and Luxembourg City regained some of the importance that it had lost in 1867 by becoming the capital of a fully independent state.
Despite Luxembourg's best efforts to remain neutral in the
First World War, it was occupied by
Germany on 2
August 1914. On 30 August,
Helmuth von Moltke moved his headquarters to Luxembourg City, closer to his armies in France in preparation for a swift victory. However, the victory never came, and Luxembourg would play host to the
German high command for another four years.
At the end of the occupation, Luxembourg City was the scene of an attempted communist revolution; on
9 November 1918, communists declared a socialist republic, but it lasted only a few hours.
In
1940, Germany occupied Luxembourg again. The Nazis were not prepared to allow
Luxembourgers self-government, and gradually integrated Luxembourg into the
Third Reich until it annexed the Grand Duchy, on 30
August 1942. Luxembourg City was liberated on
10 September 1944.
My channel on you tube :
http://www.youtube.com/alanheath is one of the most prolific from
Poland. I have produced a number of films, most in
English but also in
Polish, French,
Italian,
Spanish and the occasional hint of German and
Hebrew. My big interest in life is travel and history but I have also placed films on other subjects
There are a number of films here on the packaging industry. This is because I am the publisher of
Central and
Eastern European Packaging -- http://www.ceepackaging.com - the international platform for the packaging industry in this region focussing on the latest innovations, trends, design, branding, legislation and environmental issues with in-depth profiles of major industry achievers. Most people may think packaging pretty boring but it possibly effects your life more than you really imagine!
- published: 06 Nov 2009
- views: 1569