Europe's last Grand Duchy capital — where 17km of underground Casemates hewn from sandstone cliffs, a UNESCO-listed old town on a dramatic plateau, and three EU institutions occupy one of the continent's smallest but wealthiest capital cities
Luxembourg City (130,000; metro 670,000) is Europe's last remaining Grand Duchy capital, perched dramatically on a sandstone plateau above the Alzette and Pétrusse river valleys. Its UNESCO-listed old town and fortifications — the 'Gibraltar of the North' — include 17km of underground Casemates hewn from solid rock, the Bock promontory where Count Sigefroi built his first castle in 963 CE, and the Adolphe Bridge spanning a 42-metre valley gorge. The Kirchberg Plateau hosts the European Court of Justice, European Parliament Secretariat, and European Investment Bank, making Luxembourg City one…
Luxembourg's history begins in 963 CE when Count Sigefroi of the Ardennes traded a manor for the Bock promontory and built the first castle — the nucleus from which one of Europe's great fortress cities expanded over 900 years. The county (later duchy, then Grand Duchy) passed through Burgundian, Habsburg, Spanish, French, and Austrian hands before the 1839 Treaty of London made Luxembourg permanently neutral and stripped it of 60% of its territory — the ceded region became the Belgian province of Luxembourg. NATO headquarters moved here briefly after France withdrew from NATO's command struc…