Fortress of Luxembourg

From Roman fortification to medieval castle In Roman times, two roads crossed on the plateau above the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers, one from Arlon to Trier, and another leading to Thionville. A circular wooden palisade was built around this crossing, which could provide protection to the farmers of the region in case of danger. Not far from this, on the Bock promontory, was the small Roman fortification Lucilinburhuc – this name later turned into Lützelburg, and later still into Luxembourg. After the Romans had left, the fortification fell into disrepair, until in 963 Count Siegfried of the House of Ardennes acquired the land in exchange for his territories in Feulen near Ettelbrück from St. Maximin's Abbey in Trier. Development and use as fortress The reinforcement of the fortifications which had begun in 1320 under John the Blind continued until the end of the 14th century. In 1443 Philip the Good and his Burgundian troops took the city in a surprise attack by night. By marriage, the fortress passed in 1447 to the Austrian Habsburgs along with all Burgundian possessions. then passed to French administration again in 1701. Austrian period In 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht gave Luxembourg to the Dutch, who ruled there for two more years before the fortress was retaken by Austrian troops in 1715, who remained in possession almost for the rest of the century. As a result, until 1867, around 4,000 Prussian officers, NCOs and men were stationed amongst a community of about 10,000 civilian residents. The Prussians modernised the existing defences and added yet more advance forts, Fort Wedell and Fort Dumoulin. Luxembourg Crisis, Treaty of London and demolition After the Prussian victory in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the German Confederation was dissolved. In its place, the North German Confederation was founded under Prussian leadership, and did not include Luxembourg. Nevertheless, Prussian troops continued to occupy the fortress. Before the war, the Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck had signalled to the French government of Napoleon III that Prussia would not object to French hegemony in Luxembourg if France stayed out of Prussia's conflict with Austria, to which Napoleon agreed. After the war, the French offered King William III 5,000,000 guilder for his personal possession of Luxembourg, which he accepted in March 1867. Prussian objections, now portrayed this as French expansionism, provoked the Luxembourg Crisis. The threat of a major war between the major powers was averted only by the London Conference and the Second Treaty of London. This declared Luxembourg to be a neutral state, mandated the demolition of the fortress, and required the Prussian garrison to leave within three months. Prussian troops finally left on 9 September 1867. Over 16 years, from 1867 to 1883, the fortress, including casemates, batteries, and barracks, was dismantled at a cost of 1.5 million francs. The process was somewhat chaotic: often parts of the fortress were simply blown up, the usable materials carried off by local residents, and the rest was covered up with earth. Social considerations were not overlooked, as old barracks served as housing for workers involved in the demolition. No qualification was required to participate in this work: during times of economic downturn, additional demolition projects on the fortress gave work to the unemployed. The dismantling became a grandiose spectacle, and a celebration of new technologies and ambitious projects. Additionally, the residential quarters of Limpertsberg and Belair were created. ==Layout==

In its final form, the fortress of Luxembourg consisted of three fortress walls, taking up about at a time when the city covered only . Inside, there were a large number of bastions, with 15 forts in the centre, and another nine on the outside. A web of of underground passages (casemates) connected over of bomb-proof space. The epithet "Gibraltar of the North" compared the fortified city to the impregnable rock of Gibraltar. The fortress of Luxembourg was in fact never taken by force; in 1443, Philip the Good had taken it without opposition while subsequently the fortress was taken by siege leading to starvation. The state of the fortress as of 1867 was as follows, in clockwise order: the Grünewald Front, facing north-east; the Trier Front, facing east; the Thionville Front, facing south, and the Front of the Plain or New Gate Front, facing west and north. These contained the following works: ;Grünewald Front • Interior works: • Fort Berlaimont • Chanclos Battery • 3 Pigeons Battery • Government Bastion • Castle Bastion • Altmünster Battery • Exterior works • Fort Niedergrünewald • Fort Obergrünewald • Weimershof Battery • Malakoff Tower • Detached works • Fort Olizy • Fort Thüngen • Fort Parkhöhe ;Trier Front • Interior works • Bock fortifications • Altmünster Battery • Holy Ghost Citadel • Exterior works • Rham fortifications • Beamont Redoubt • Detached works • Fort Parkhöhe • Fort Dumoulin • Fort Rubamprez • Fort Rumigny ;Thionville Front • Interior works • Holy Ghost Citadel • Bastion Louis • Bastion Beck • Bastion Jost • Exterior works • Fort Verlorenkost • Railway Battery • Fort Wallis • Fort Bourbon • Thionville Overhang • Fort Elisabeth • Fort Peter • Detached works • Fort Neipperg • Fort Wedell • Fort Rheinsheim ;Front of the Plain / New Gate Front • Interior works • Bastion Jost • Bastion Camus • Bastion Marie • New gate fortifications • Berlaimont Bastion • Exterior works • Fort Peter • Lampert Battery • Fort Lampert • Fort Louvigny • Fort Vauban • Fort Marie • Fort Royal • Ravelins I–VI • Detached works • Fort Rheinsheim • Fort Daun • Fort Charles • Marlborough Redoubt Land usage ) In the Middle Ages, Luxembourg had been a relatively open city, with easy access through 23 gates. The ramparts delimited the urban space but allowed both people and goods to move between the town and the countryside without hindrance. This changed drastically from the mid-16th century, when fortifications cut the city off from the surrounding area. The defensive structures, spread out over a large distance, progressively hindered access to the city: the fortress became a straitjacket for its inhabitants. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the gaps in the old medieval defences were closed off. The Marie gate was buried under Bastion Marie in 1548, while the Lampert, Orvis, Beckerich and Jost gates disappeared in the early 17th century under the Berlaimont, Louis, Beck and Jost bastions. The military logic behind the need for an inaccessible fortress contrasted with that in favour of a merchant city, open to the outside world. The 1644 closure of the Jews' gate, the primary access from the West facilitating trade with the Netherlands, was a key date in this process. Traffic was obliged to bypass the plain, and enter by the New Gate (Porte-Neuve) built from 1626 to 1636. A traveller coming from France now had to descend into the Grund and come up through the Fishmarket, passing through several gates on the way. The Spanish government fully recognised that sealing off the city would stifle the economy and result in depopulation at a time when large numbers of civilians were needed to provide for the supply and lodging of the troops. Louvigny drew up plans in 1671 for a new gate on the rue Philippe and a bridge over the Pétrusse valley. These projects promised a significant boost in trade and transportation but were never realized, likely due to financial constraints. The fortress found itself encircled by a kind of no man's land, as the Austrians implemented a security perimeter in 1749, forbidding permanent constructions within. This was done to maintain a clear field of fire, an unobstructed view, and deny cover to potential attackers. Under the Prussians, the perimeter was extended to from the external lines of fortification. Luxembourg's first railway station, built in 1859 on the Bourbon Plateau, fell within the perimeter, and therefore had to be constructed out of wood. The expansion of the fortress resulted in the loss of agricultural land. From the Middle Ages, gardens, orchards, fields, and meadows had encircled the city, forming a green belt. However, these gradually vanished to make room for fortifications. The urban population, however, depended on this area for the city's supply of vegetables, fruit and fodder. The absorption of agricultural fields accelerated with the Austrian extension of the Glacis. Commander Neipperg had the earth removed down to the rock, a distance of from the fortress, so that attackers laying siege would have no opportunity to dig trenches. The rocky desert that surrounded the city was now called the "bare fields" (champs pelés). Land expropriations often occurred without discussion, with the military invoking the threat of war and a state of emergency to seize plots without compensation. In 1744 for example, the garrison confiscated a plot of land close to the Eich gate in order to extend the defences. This land, and its garden of 48 fruit trees, belonged to three orphaned sisters, aged 9, 15 and 20, for whom the orchard was their only means of subsistence. The confiscation plunged them into destitution: when the soldiers chopped down the trees and the girls attempted to at least collect the firewood, they were chased away. It was not until the late 18th century that the authorities changed their attitude: the government in Brussels decided that compensation should be paid for confiscated property. The Austrians started to make up for the previous decades' injustices by making payments to those who had been expropriated, or to their descendants. ==Military rule==

Entering or exiting the city meant passing under the watchful eye of the soldiers on guard duty. For the Spanish period, in 1684 the Prince of Chimay commanded 2,600 soldiers, comprising 1,900 infantry and 700 cavalry. Both groups suffered the same poor living conditions in the city, such as the lack of a clean water supply and of sanitation, leading to outbreaks of cholera and typhus. The cramped barracks often required two soldiers to share a bed. Officers, quartered in the houses of the upper classes, did not experience such problems. This stratification was mirrored among the inhabitants: there was a marked difference between the dark, cramped housing of the poor in the lower town and the fine accommodation enjoyed by the rich who lived in housing in the upper town built by the nobility or the clergy. In 1814, the ground floors of the Rham Barracks, the Maria Theresa Barracks, and the riding barracks were renovated for use as stables. Out of the five storage buildings for grain and flour which had been built by 1795, the one in the upper town was used as a stable. Together, these had a capacity of 386 horses. By late 1819, the artillery required a new riding arena to train the large number of new horses that were being delivered. For this, they wanted to use the garden of an old monastery on the Saint-Esprit Plateau. By 1835, an indoor riding arena in the lower yard of the plateau had been completed. This had enough room to train a squadron, and in war time could be used as a livestock shed or as a fodder store. Beyond the riding horses of the cavalry detachment and officers, a large number of draught horses belonged to the artillery and military engineers to ensure supplies. In case of emergency or when large-scale transport was necessary, contracts were signed with private haulage companies. The mill in the Cavalier Camus alone, which made enough flour daily for 1,500 portions of bread, required 24 horses to operate. Horse artillery units were ready for rapid reinforcement of endangered fortress sections or to support a breakout. In 1859, Luxembourg boasted eight horse guns with 38 horses. Additional horses were also needed to transport ammunition, as well as for riding and as reserves. Storage space for the animals' fodder had to be found. Oats were stored in the remaining churches after 1814. Straw posed a problem due to fire hazards, leading to its storage either in the trenches of the Front of the plain, in Pfaffenthal, or in the lower quarters of the Grund and Clausen. The livestock intended for slaughter were to be accommodated among the inhabitants, with the gardens in the Grund and Pfaffenthal being reserved for cattle. Animals could also be a source of income for the military: already under the French, the fortress authorities sold off the grazing rights on the grassy areas of the Glacis. Due to lax supervision of grazing, however, by 1814, some of the folds were no longer recognisable as such. ==Legacy==

Remains and later use Parts of the fortress were not destroyed after 1867, but simply rendered unfit for military use. Many old walls and towers still survive, and still heavily influence the view of the city. Some of the remaining elements of the fortress are the Bock promontory, Vauban towers, the "Three Towers" (one of the old gates), Fort Thüngen, the towers on the Rham plateau, the Wenceslas Wall, the old cavalry barracks in Pfaffenthal, the Holy Ghost citadel, the casemates of the Bock and the Pétrusse, the castle bridge, and some of the Spanish turrets. The modern-day city depends very heavily for its tourism industry on its location as well as promoting the remains of the fortress and the casemates. The Wenceslas and Vauban circular walks have been set up to show visitors the city's fortifications. The old fortifications and the city have been classed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994. Fort Lambert, on the Front facing the plain, was covered over with earth after 1867. On this site, the Avenue Monterey was built. In 2001, construction work on an underground car park under the Avenue Monterey uncovered part of the Fort – one of its redoubts – which can now be seen by the public. Bastion Beck is now the Place de la Constitution, where the iconic Gëlle Fra statue is located. From 2003 to 2008 the National Centre for Archaeological Research () (CNRA) carried out large-scale archaeological works in the area of the Wenceslas Wall. In 2009, the Service des Sites et Monuments nationaux (SSMN) drew up plans for the restoration of this part of the fortress. • Rue du Fort Dumoulin • Rue du Fort Olisy • Rue Louvigny and the Villa Louvigny, which was built on the remains of Fort Louvigny, named after Jean Charles de Landas, Count of Louvigny, who was chief engineer and interim governor of the fortress in the 1670s • Rue du Fossé (fossé: ditch) • Place d'Armes, French for "parade ground" • Rue Malakoff • Avenue de la Porte-Neuve, after the "New Gate" (French: Porte Neuve) • Avenue Émile-Reuter was until 1974 called the Avenue de l'Arsenal (Lux: Arsenalstrooss, which is still used by some today), after an artillery detachment there • Rue Jean-Georges Willmar, named after a governor of Luxembourg (1815–1830) • Rue Vauban (in Clausen), after Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, the French military engineer who massively expanded Luxembourg's fortifications • The Glacis and the Rue des Glacis, a glacis being a slope of earth in front of defensive fortifications • Boulevard Kaltreis (in Bonnevoie), used to be colloquially called "op der Batterie", as the French troops besieging the city had positioned their artillery here in 1794 • On the Bourbon plateau, itself named after Fort Bourbon: • Rue du Fort Bourbon • Rue du Fort Elisabeth • Rue du Fort Wallis • Rue du Fort Neipperg, after Wilhelm Reinhard von Neipperg, an Austrian general who was governor of Luxembourg five times in the 18th century • Rue Bender, after Blasius Columban von Bender, governor from 1785 to 1795 • Rue du Fort Wedell • On the Kirchberg plateau: • Rue des Trois Glands and Rue du Fort Thüngen; the Fort, which has been mostly reconstructed, consists of three towers, hence nicknamed the "Three Acorns" (French: Trois Glands) • Rue du Fort Berlaimont • Rue du Fort Niedergrünewald Culture and folklore A local version of a legend of Saint Nicholas (''D'Seeche vum Zinniklos'') refers to the danger of being shut outside the fortress gates for the night. Three boys were playing outside, and were far away from the city when the curfew was sounded: it was too late for them to return home. They sought refuge with a butcher who lived outside the city; at night-time, however, the butcher killed them to turn them into aspic. Luckily, a few days later, Saint Nicholas also found himself shut out of the city, and went to the same butcher's house. He found the children, and was able to bring them back to life. There are several elaborate maps and views of the fortress made before 1700. In 1598, Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg published the oldest known view of Luxembourg City, a copper engraving that appeared in Civitates orbis terrarum (Cologne, 1598). Half a century later, the Dutch cartographer Joan Blaeu, drawing on Braun's work, published his "Luxemburgum" in the second volume of his Stedeboek (Amsterdam, 1649). Van der Meulen provides another view of Luxembourg from Limpertsberg where he depicts French troops taking the city in 1649. In more modern times, the British Romantic landscape artist J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) painted several scenes of the fortress, both paintings and sketches, after visiting in 1824 and 1839. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe visited the city in 1792, and left a number of sketches of the fortress. Christoph Wilhelm Selig, a member of the Hessian garrison (1814-1815), painted several watercolours. Later, the fortress served as a model for the Luxembourgers Michel Engels and Nicolas Liez and Jean-Baptiste Fresez. Even after the dismantling of (most of) the fortifications by 1883, the spectacular remains have still been used as motifs by artists such as Joseph Kutter or Sosthène Weis. File:Blaeu View of Luxembourg 1649.jpg|Georg Braun, Franz Hogenberg: Luxembourg City (1598) File:Blaeu Luxembourg 1649.jpg|Joan Blaeu: Luxembourg City (1649) File:Van der Meulen Prise de Luxembourg.jpg|Van der Meulen: Prise de Luxembourg (1684) File:Selig Luxembourg from Paffendall.jpg|Christoph Wilhelm Selig: Luxembourg from Pfaffenthal (1814) File:Jean-Baptiste.Fresez Luxembourg 01.jpg|Jean-Baptiste Fresez: Luxembourg from the Alzette River (c. 1828) File:Turnerfetschenhaff.jpg|J. M. W. Turner: Luxembourg (1834) File:Turner St Esprit Luxembourg.jpg|J. M. W. Turner: Citadel of St Esprit, Luxembourg (c. 1839) File:Nicolas Liez Vue de la ville de Luxembourg depuis le Fetschenhof.jpg|Nicolas Liez: View of Luxembourg from the Fetschenhof (1870) File:Sosthène Weis Bock Luxembourg City 1938.JPG|Sosthène Weis: Bock rock (1938) ==See also==

• Bruns, André. Luxembourg as a Federal Fortress 1815-1860. Wirral: Nearchos Publications, 2001. • • Clesse, René. "300 Jahre Plëssdarem" (in German). Ons Stad, No 37, 1991. p. 5-11 • • • • • Engels, Michel. Bilder aus der ehemaligen Bundesfestung Luxemburg. Luxembourg: J. Heintzes Buchhandlung, 1887. • Jacquemin, Albert. Die Festung Luxemburg von 1684 bis 1867. Luxembourg, 1994. • • Koltz, Jean-Pierre. Baugeschichte der Stadt und Festung Luxemburg. Luxembourg, Vol. I, 1970. • Konen, Jérôme (ed.) Kasematten – Auf Spurensuche in der Festungsstadt Luxemburg. Luxembourg: Jérôme Konen Productions, 2013. • Kutter, Edouard. Luxembourg au temps de la forteresse. Luxembourg: Edouard Kutter, 1967. • • • May, Guy. "Die Militärhospitäler der früheren Festung Luxemburg". Ons Stad, No. 100, 2012. p. 76-79 • Musée d'Histoire de la Ville de Luxembourg (ed.). Das Leben in der Bundesfestung Luxemburg (1815-1867). Luxembourg: Imprimerie Centrale, 1993. • Mersch, François. Luxembourg. Forteresse & Belle Epoque. Luxembourg: Éditions François Mersch, 1976. • Parent, Michel. Vauban. Paris: Editions Jacques Fréal, 1971. • Pauly, Michel; Uhrmacher, Martin: "Burg, Stadt, Festung, Großstadt: Die Entwicklung der Stadt Luxemburg". / Yegles-Becker, Isabelle; Pauly, Michel: "Le démantelement de la forteresse". In: Der Luxemburg Atlas – Atlas du Luxembourg. Eds.: Patrick Bousch, Tobias Chilla, Philippe Gerber, Olivier Klein, Christian Schulz, Christophe Sohn and Dorothea Wiktorin. Photos: Andrés Lejona. Cartography: Udo Beha, Marie-Line Glaesener, Olivier Klein. Cologne: Emons Verlag, 2009, . • • • Prost, Philippe. La ville en guerre. Édition de l'imprimeur, 1996. • • Rocolle, Pierre. 2000 ans de fortification française. Lavauzelle, 1989. • Rupprecht, Alphonse. Logements militaires à Luxembourg pendant la période de 1794 à 1814. Luxembourg: Krippler-Muller, 1979. • Savin, Cyril. Musée de la Forteresse, Conception générale d’aménagement thématique. Luxembourg: Service des Sites et Monuments Nationaux, 1998. • Thewes, Guy. Luxembourg Forteresse d’Europe, catalogues du Musée d’Histoire de la ville de Luxembourg, Vol. 5. Luxembourg, 1998. • Thewes, Guy; Wagener, Danièle. "La Ville de Luxembourg en 1795". (in French) Ons Stad, No. 49, 1995. p. 4–7. • Thewes, Guy. "Les casernes du Rham" (in French) Ons Stad, No. 53, 1996. p. 3-5 • Thewes, Guy. "L'évacuation des déchets de la vie urbaine sous l'Ancien Régime" (in French). Ons Stad, No. 75, 2004. p. 30–33. • Thewes, Guy. "Luxembourg, ville dangereuse sous l’Ancien Régime? – Police et sécurité au XVIIIe siècle" (in French). Ons Stad, No. 104, 2013. p. 58–61. • Tousch, Pol. Episoden aus der Festung Luxemburg: Luxembourg, une forteresse raconte. Luxembourg: Éditions Pol Tousch, 1998. . • Trausch, Gilbert. La Ville de Luxembourg, Du château des comtes à la métropole européenne. Fonds Mercator Paribas, 1994. . • • Van der Vekene, Emile. Les plans de la ville et forteresse de Luxembourg édités de 1581 à 1867. 2nd edition. Luxembourg: Saint-Paul, 1996. . • Watelet, Marcel. Luxembourg Ville Obsidionale, Musée d’Histoire de la ville de Luxembourg. Luxembourg, 1998. • Zimmer J. Le Passé Recomposé, archéologie urbaine à Luxembourg. Luxembourg, MNHA, 1999. • Zimmer J. Aux origines du quartier St-Michel à Luxembourg "Vieille ville", De l’église à la ville. Luxembourg, MNHA, 2001. ==External links==