Luxembourg seems to be in two parts, and in between is a gaping chasm that must be 150 feet deep… it feels really weird topography to build a city on?

It doesn’t look that steep from these pics, probably because it’s heavily forested, but trust me, it’s quite the ways down. There seems to be massive public skate parks. Need to sus this out a bit more – weird topography for a city just going from the new section to the old town.

Monument to the Jews of Luxembourg in the Second World War…

Ah, another Notre-Dame Cathedral! But, because we are in Luxembourg, it’s got a sign out front saying ‘Kathedral Notre-Dame’ (in Luxembourgish, yeah apparently that is a real dialect), but also saying ‘Cathédrale Notre-Dame’ (in French), and ‘Kathedrale unserer Lieben Frau’ (in German) because these poor buggers live in a strange little confluence of culture that is smack dab in the middle of France, Belgium and Germany… all the while they seem to be trying to keep their own thang alive.

Construction first started on this cathedral in 1613… so it’s kinda shiny and new compare to Metz yesterday!

Some very cool carved beasties in the western portal.

While the church is predominantly an example of late gothic architecture, it also has many Renaissance elements and decorations. I love these high vaulted ceilings in these beautiful old churches. I can’t imagine what medieval people (I know I’ve ranted about his recently but it bares repeating), who had no mass media in their day to day lives, made of these extravagant buildings.

The organ gallery is unusually at the very front of the church, above the main entrance. It is not a very large cathedral all things considered, so I guess it doesn’t need to be located closer to the main altar place where masses would be delivered.

Luxembourg Cathedral has some frescos, which appear to be in high medieval style, but they are in such good condition, I suspect they may be latter additions. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of English information to go by in this visit.

I love the enormous vaulted ceilings.

There were a couple of rather bold mosaics in some small altar spaces either side of the main nave… again, I couldn’t ascertain how old these mosaics were, but I can confidently say, they are not as accomplished as many of the high medieval golden religious mosaics I have seen in many other churches and institutions, leading me to think they are also a rather more recent addition.

The stained glass windows around the central nave are in keeping with the original construction time of the church – approx 17thC, however the glass towards the towers at the front of the church are of much later, added in the 1930s and then replaced in the 1980s after a fire caused one of the towers to be severely damaged.

Even modern stained glass is beautiful. It’s surprising we don’t see stained glass elements included more in modern architecture… but I guess everything comes down to cost these days.

The enormous columns throughout the cathedral have different patterns carved into them. I can’t say I’ve noticed this in other medieval religious monuments. I mostly recall seeing plain, smooth columns, or in some cases fluted columned, but these have knotwork or diapering patterns carved into them, and hardly any of them match?

Below the Cathedral is the crypt which houses the remains of many important Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses of Luxembourg… the oldest being a tomb for John of Bohemia (1296-1346), and then a long line of modern Dukes and Duchesses: Marie-Adeliade (1894-1924), Marie Ann the Infanta of Portugal and Consort to William IV (1861 – 1924), Felix, Prince Consort of Charlotte I, and a bunch of others up until like five years ago.

The small chapel where the royal family of Luxembourg gathers for the farewells is under the Cathedral and not really open for public use.

The tomb of John of Bohemia mentioned above (1296-1346)…

The exit brings you out onto the main square of the Kneudler – or basically the altstadt (but we don’t call it that in Luxembourg because we are being all Luxembourgish.

The Kneudler is the area surrounding the Place Guilliame II, who is depicted on his horse here.

In 1923, this memorial to the Luxembourgers who volunteered in WWI was created by artist Claus Cito. The very noticeable Gëlle Fra (or Golden Lady) overlooks the Place de la Constitution. 1923… feels like maybe they probably wished they’d waited a few years to build this one; could have saved themselves having to build a second one to honour the volunteers of the next clusterfuck.

Luxembourg is a city built over an enormous ravine with huge towering bridges spanning the two plateau’d areas that comprise the old city and the new. So many streets we wandered along had very high drops down to the river below.

Many walking and biking trails line the river and wind up the steep paths to the city. I dare say building housing in this area would be expensive, hazardous and potentially a flood risk, so it’s all enormous public park spaces.

Grand Duchess Charlotte (1896-1985), who ruled in her own right from 1919 to 1964.

The Grand Ducal Palace, which is rarely open to the public and was most definitely not open to the public at the moment as the family is in residence due to it being the Duke’s birthday, like yesterday.

Complete with beautiful carved stone turrets, and beady eyed guards staring suspiciously at tourists and having to tolerate us wankers taking their photograph.

Around the corner – literally – from the Grand Ducal Palace is the Luxembourg National Art and History Museum. Best thing about it : it’s free! Luxembourg seems to like free, they have entirely free public transport here, since 2019. All local trains, trams and buses are 100% free for locals and tourists alike, so the city seemed to have hardly any cars in it, and we found when walking the streets, there were plenty of paid parking spaces available as most people were using the free public transport.

Now unfortunately, this was going to prove to be one of those museums where if you don’t speak one of the languages that they seem to want to embrace (French, German, Dutch and Luxembourgish!), details were going to be scant, but we did what we could.

Merovingian clasps, fibula, buttons and brooches.

I love how the temporary little sign informing visitors that an object has been removed is written in English – when hardly any of the other descriptive panels are!

Cruiciform Fibula – Zwiebelknopffibeln. 😐 Yes, that’s the level of information we got here. lol
Oh and that they were worn by high functionaries and officials. But no where or when…?

Merovingian jewelled pieces, gold and garnet. Clasps and necklace pendants. Bertrange.

Buckets c.560-570 AD. One extant, one reproduction. Bertrange.

Merovingian belt buckles

Merovingian era beads.

And suddenly we jump to some glassware, 1stC Found at a necropolis for nobles in a different find in Bertrange.

Orfevrerie Merovingienne. 6-7thC of local provenances.
A collection of gold and garnet fibula, ornaments, buttons and accessories. Some from bracelets, necklaces. Motifs are inspired from Germanic art, and early Christian design.

Spoons! Merovingian also, and they’re quite petite compared to spoons seen in other museums. Approx 50mm in length.

Carved monuments from ‘La Colonne de Jupiter’ – a regional monument that was devoted to the population. Objects are all 1stC and made for Jupiter Optimus Maxium and to honour emperor Nero.

Fragments of decoration from a funereal monument, c.2nd-3rdC.
Cal air, Wasserbillig op der Spatz.

Seals of various Luxembourg nobles, ranging from 1340 to 1530. Impressions all taken in 1851.

Official regalia and medals of various noble and marital orders:

Busts of Jean l’Aveugle and Elisabeth de Boheme, Pierre Blanc, c.1872

Reliquary of the True Cross.
Gold and various gemstones, c.1230-1240

No plaque for this one… le sigh.

Virgin and Child surrounded by Saints – Crucifixion. Oil on wood.
Paolo do Giovanni Fei, (1345-1411).

Virgin and Child surrounded by Saints,
Lorenzo do Bicci (1350-1427), oil on timber.

Virgin and Child,
Unknown Venetian painter. 15thC, oil on timber.

Saint Bernardino of Siena and Saint John the Baptist,
Giovanni Ambrogio Bevilacqua, (1481-1512), oil on panel.

Madonna and Child surrounded by Angels and Saints (freaky looking saints!)
Giacomo del Piscano, c. 1475, tempura on panel.

Group of Saints – Heligengruppe.
Don Silvestro dei Gherardcci (1339-1399), tempura on board.

Crucifixion.
Simone del Crocifissi (1350-1399), oil on board.

Virgin and Child.
Unknown veneto-byzantin artist. 13thC-14thC, oil on timber.

Holy Kinship, Frans Floris (1516-1570)

The Adoration of the Shepards,
Joachim Beukelaer (1533-1574). Oil on canvas.

Saint Jerome
Attributed to Joos van Cleve (1485-1540), oil on board.

Charity
Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553), c.1538. Oil on canvas.

A Boy and Girl with Their Pigeons in a Loft – the only ‘domestic’ scene in the entire museum.
Henri Voordecker (1779-1861), c.1833, oil on canvas.

The Temple of Vesta in Tivoli,
Attributed to Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld (1758-1846), oil on canvas.

Francesca de Rimini (1255-1285) and her brother in law, Paolo Malatesta (1246-1285), embracing while reading – both were married to other people but fell in love. When Paolo’s older brother discovered the affair, he killed both his wife and brother with a dagger, (a story originally told by Dante Alighieri in the Divine Comedies, 1320).
Sculpture originally attributed to Antonio Canova (1757-1822), c.1790, but since determined to be a work by Tito Angelini (1806-1878), an important Italian Romantic sculpture.

Isaac Blessing Jacob,
Argus Wolffort (1581-1641), oil on canvas.

Bacchus and a Follower,
Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678), c.1645, oil on canvas.

Roman mosaic of the Muses of Vitchen.
10.3 x 5.9m. Polychrome mosaic, 1stC AD.

Grand Marble Vase, 2-3rdC AD.
61cm tall, 70cm diameter, carved from a single piece of white marble.

Roman amphorae
1-3rdC AD, terracotta. Diverse provenance – used for the commercial transport of wine, oil dates, and that fishy stuff the Romans loved but I can’t remember the name of right now…. Garum! Remembered. 🙂

Oil lamps, GalloRoman 1-3rdC AD.

Fragments of large fresco-style mosaics popularised in GalloRoman restaurants.

All museum’d out, we went for some drinks and were having a lovely time with some Long Island Iced Teas and some Pisco Sours – until a bunch of French people came along and reminded us of how Europeans still love to chain smoke! Yikes! Happy B’Day Angus.

Dinner was at a local French restaurant called ‘Copin D’abord’. We had a delicious meal made from local produce. Entrees: clothed foie gras and mango chutney, and scallops in Galician sauce. Mains: Beef Bourginon and rump steak with Forrester champignon sauce. Desserts: unstructured Lemon Tart and Crème Brûlée and Panacotta. Delicious!