Luxembourg is a state (grand duchy) in Western Europe. It borders
with Belgium in the north, with France in the west and south, with
Germany in the east. Has no access to the sea.
The total area
of Luxembourg is 2586.4 km², making it one of the smallest sovereign
states in Europe. As of January 1, 2022, the population of
Luxembourg was 645,397, of which 341,230 were Luxembourgers (52.87%
of the population) and 304,167 were immigrants (47.13% of the
population).
Luxembourg is a multinational state with a wide
ethno-cultural, linguistic, religious, racial and national diversity
Go to the "#Population" section.
A founding member of the
European Union since 1957, it is also a member of NATO, the OECD and
the UN. Together with Belgium and the Netherlands, it is part of the
Benelux.
Luxembourg has the smallest army in NATO, and in
terms of area it is the second (after Malta) smallest EU state.
How to get there
By plane
Luxembourg Airport (IATA: LUX, ICAO:
ELLX) is located 5 kilometers northeast of Luxembourg City. This is the
only international airport in the country, the airport has two
terminals. Luxair, Luxembourg's international airline, flies in Europe,
including from Paris, Frankfurt and London. Luxembourg Airport is served
by many other airlines, including Air France, Czech Airlines, British
Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, VLM Airlines and TAP Portugal,
Lufthansa, KLM and SAS Scandinavian Airlines. There are direct flights
to Luxembourg to over 20 destinations from cities such as Zurich, Nice,
Rome, Lisbon, Madrid, Paris and Dublin. There are no direct flights from
Russia to Luxembourg, only with transfers in Europe.
By car
Autobahns come to Luxembourg City from Namur, Liège, Metz, Trier and
Saarbrücken. If you need to go to the northern part of the duchy, it is
most convenient to travel from Liege on another autobahn, through
Verviers. To get to the east of the country, you will have to use local
roads. Please note that the whole of Luxembourg and the adjacent parts
of neighboring countries are located in low, but mountains, and
therefore there can be ice in winter, and at any time the roads are
slow, with a lot of turns.
Gasoline in Luxembourg is much cheaper
than all neighboring countries.
By bus
From Brussels Charleroi
Airport (Belgium) or Frankfurt Hahn Airport (Germany) you can take the
Shuttle Bus.
Language
Luxembourgish is considered the national language,
German and French are used for administrative communication. French
is understood universally everywhere, by the entire population.
Purchases
Luxembourg is part of the euro zone (EUR), which
means you don't have to exchange currency if you come from Belgium,
France or Germany. If you know numismatists, save a few local coins,
as Luxembourgish coins are among the rarest of the euro - even in
Luxembourg, your change will consist mainly of coins from other
countries.
Connection
The international dialing code of
Luxembourg is +352. Country internet domain .lu
Ancient history
The oldest traces of
human habitation on the territory of Luxembourg belong to the Upper
Paleolithic and date back to about 35,000 BC. The oldest artifacts from
this period are decorated bones found in Etrange
Permanent
settlements with houses appear in the Neolithic era, in the 5th
millennium BC. e. Traces of such settlements have been found in the
south of Luxembourg, in the city of Aspelt, as well as in the communes
of Weiler-la-Tour, Grevenmacher and Diekirch. The frame of the dwellings
consisted of tree trunks, the walls were made of clay-covered wicker
vines, and the roofs were covered with reeds or thatch. Neolithic
pottery was discovered near Remerschen.
At the beginning of the
Bronze Age, the population of the territory of Luxembourg was not
numerous, but by the period of the XIII-VIII centuries BC include
numerous finds: the remains of dwellings, ceramics, weapons, jewelry
found in places such as Nospelt, Dahlheim, Mompach and Remerschen.
In the VI-I centuries BC the territory of Luxembourg was inhabited
by the Gauls, then it was included in the Roman Empire (the diocese of
Gaul).
In the 5th century, the Franks invaded Luxembourg.
medieval history
At the end of the 7th century, the population of the
territory of modern Luxembourg was converted to Christianity thanks to
the Monk Willibrord, who founded a Benedictine monastery there. In the
Middle Ages, the land was alternately part of the Frankish kingdom of
Austrasia, then the Holy Roman Empire, and later Lorraine; in 963 it
gained independence as a result of an exchange of strategic territories.
The fact is that on the territory of Luxembourg there was a fortified
castle - Lisilinburg (Luxembourg. Lisilinbuerg - "Little Fortress"),
which laid the foundation for the state. At the head of this tiny domain
was Siegfried. His descendants expanded their territories slightly
through wars, political marriages, inheritances, and treaties. In 1060,
Conrad was proclaimed the first count of Luxembourg. His
great-great-granddaughter became the famous ruler Ermesinda, and her
great-great-grandson Henry VII, in turn, was Holy Roman Emperor from
1308. In 1354 the County of Luxembourg became a duchy, but in 1443
Elisabeth von Görlitz, niece of the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, was
forced to cede this possession to Philip III, Duke of Burgundy.
In 1477, Luxembourg passed to the Habsburg dynasty, and during the
division of the empire of Charles V, the territory fell into the hands
of Spain. When the Netherlands rebelled against Philip II, King of
Spain, Luxembourg remained neutral. As a result of this rebellion, the
duchy passed into the possession of the rebel side. The beginning of the
Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) passed quite calmly for Luxembourg, but
with the entry of France into it in 1635, real trouble and ruin came to
the duchy. In addition, the Peace of Westphalia (1648) did not bring
calm - this happened only in 1659 as a result of the conclusion of the
Iberian Treaty. In 1679-1684, Louis XIV systematically captured
Luxembourg, but already in 1697 France handed it over to Spain.
History of the XVIII-XIX centuries
During the War of the Spanish
Succession, Luxembourg, along with Belgium, returned to the Austrian
Habsburgs. Six years after the start of the French Revolution,
Luxembourg again passed to France, so that the state experienced all the
vicissitudes of fate along with the French - the Directory and Napoleon
I Bonaparte. The former territory was divided into three departments, in
which the constitution of the Directory and the corresponding system of
government were in force. The peasants of Luxembourg fell under the
anti-church measures of the French government, and the introduction of
military duty in 1798 led to an uprising in Luxembourg, which was
brutally suppressed.
With the fall of Napoleon I, French rule in
Luxembourg ended, its fate was decided by the Congress of Vienna in
1815: Luxembourg was granted the status of Grand Duchy with Willem I
(representative of the Orange-Nassau dynasty, King of the Netherlands)
at the head. Luxembourg retained autonomy, and the connection with the
Netherlands was rather nominal - only because the duchy was considered
the personal possession of Willem I. The territory was also part of the
German Union, and a Prussian garrison was stationed on its territory.
Willem's rule was quite harsh, as he treated the population of the
territory as personal property and imposed huge taxes on them.
Naturally, Luxembourg supported the Belgian uprising against Willem in
1830, and in October of that year it was announced that Luxembourg was
part of Belgium, although Willem did not renounce his rights to the
territory. In 1831, France, Great Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria
decided that Luxembourg should remain with Willem I and enter the German
Confederation. In 1839, under the Treaty of London, the French-speaking
western part of the duchy became part of Belgium (modern province of
Luxembourg in the Walloon region).
In 1842, Willem II signed an
agreement with Prussia, according to which Luxembourg became a member of
the Customs Union. This move greatly improved the economic and
agricultural development of the duchy: infrastructure was restored, and
railways appeared. In 1841, Luxembourg was granted a constitution,
which, however, did not meet the wishes of the population. The French
Revolution of 1848 greatly influenced the autonomy, since under its
influence Willem granted a more liberal constitution, which was amended
in 1856. With the collapse of the confederation in 1866, Luxembourg
became a fully sovereign state. Officially, this happened on September
9, 1867. A little earlier, on April 29, 1867, at an international
conference in London between Russia, Great Britain, France, Prussia and
a number of other states, an agreement was signed on the status of
Luxembourg. Under the treaty, the crown of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
was recognized as the hereditary possession of the house of Nassau, and
the duchy itself was defined as a "perpetually neutral" state.
History of the 20th century
With the death of Willem III in 1890, the
Netherlands was left without a male heir, so the Grand Duchy passed to
Adolf, formerly Duke of Nassau, and then to his son Willem, who died in
1912. Over the years of their reign, they were little interested in
issues of state administration, but Mary Adelaide, Willem's daughter,
developed a vigorous activity there, which was not appreciated by the
population.
During the First World War, Luxembourg remained
neutral; True, in 1914 Germany nevertheless occupied it, and Mary
Adelaide did not particularly protest. At the very beginning of 1919,
power in Luxembourg passed to the republican Committee of Public Safety,
but was returned to the monarchy with the help of the French garrison.
However, because of these events and according to the Treaty of
Versailles, Maria Adelaide was forced to give the throne to her sister
Charlotte, who was enthroned on January 9, 1919 (on the throne until
1964). According to the results of the plebiscite on September 28, 1919,
the majority of the population "wanted to see Charlotte on the throne."
In 1940, Germany occupied Luxembourg for the second time. True, now
the government refused to compromise with the invaders, so the entire
court was forced to emigrate and live in exile. In the duchy,
"traditional" Nazi orders were established, the French language was
infringed. The duchy became part of Nazi Germany in December 1941. 12
thousand people received summons for mobilization in the Wehrmacht, of
which 3 thousand evaded the draft, and about the same number died on the
Eastern Front.
In September 1944, there was a liberation by the
troops of the countries of the Anti-Hitler coalition. In the same year,
Luxembourg entered into an economic union with Belgium and the
Netherlands (Benelux). With its entry into NATO in 1949, the Grand Duchy
of Luxembourg violated its age-old military neutrality. In 1951, the
Duchy, together with Belgium, West Germany, the Netherlands, France and
Italy, signed an agreement establishing the European Coal and Steel
Community (ECSC), and since 1957, together with the same five states,
signed the Treaty of Rome and established the European Economic
Community, in 1993 year after the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty,
which became the European Union. In 1964, Prince Jean ascended the
throne of Luxembourg. Since March 26, 1995, Luxembourg has been part of
the Schengen area.
In October 2000, Duke Jean abdicated the
throne, citing his advanced age; His son Henri ascended the throne. In
2002, after three years of parallel circulation, Luxembourg became a
member of the eurozone and finally replaced the national currency, the
Luxembourg franc, with the euro.