Esch-sur-Alzette

Esch-sur-Alzette (Esch-Uelzecht in Luxembourgish, Esch an der Alzig in German), or simply Esch, is a 35,040 inhabitants town in the southwestern part of Luxembourg, the second most important and populated in Luxembourg. This town is crossed by Alzette river and it's near the French border of the country, in the south-west part of the country.

How do I arrive to Esch-sur-Alzette?

  Esch-sur-Alzette is a town quite well communicated by public transportation. 

• Train: there are trains from Esch-sur-Alzette to Luxembourg City every 30 minutes (aprox. 25 minutes).
• Bus: there are often buses Luxembourg City (aprox. 25 minutes) from Esch-sur-Alzette.  
• Car: if you rented a car, from Esch-sur-Alzette it can be reached Dudelange (aprox. 15 minutes), Luxembourg City (aprox. 20 minutes) and Diekrich (aprox. 45 minutes). It's close to the border with France so it's can be reached from French towns and cities like Thionville (aprox. 25 minutes) or Metz (aprox. 45 minutes) too.

History

During many centuries Esch was a small village (turnt into town by John of Bohemia and since the French Revolution it was turnt into a village again) by the river Alzette untill in the 1850s iron ores were found in the area. Therefore mines were digged and a steel industry started developing, increasing Esch-sur-Alzette's population in a very fast way. The new industry provided Luxembourg economic development during the last part of the 19th century and in 1911 ARBED was founded as a state company. In the 1970s the mines and many of the blast furnaces were shut down (the last one, in Esch-Belval, definitely halting its operations in 1997) and the blast furnaces were replaced by an electric furnace. Today the industrial wastelands on Belval left behind by the steel industry, are being redeveloped and converted into a new, modern town quarter with different structures of the University of Luxembourg. In 2002 ARBED merged into Arcelor, taking over from Mittal and forming the biggest steel company in the world. 

 

What can I visit in Esch-sur-Alzette?

Esch-sur-Alzette isn't a touristic place, usually forgotten by visitors, but it's vital to understand Luxembourg's history and a good idea to go out of the beaten track.

These are Esch-sur-Alzette's main attractions:

• Luxembourg Science Center (9-17 Mon-Fri; 10-18 Sat-Sun; 10€/ 7€/ free  adults/ retiree and students/ kids under 6): amazing science and technology museum which makes you discover and test more than 100 stations and shows. It's especially recommend for people travelling with children.
• City of Science and Blast Furnace in Belval (10-19 Wed-Fri, 10-18 Sat and 14-18 Sun from Apr to Oct; 5€/ 3€/ free  adults/ retiree and students/ kids under 12): former high oven where cast iron was produced untill 1997 in Belval district. When it was shut down the area was transformed and integrated in the town, creating this museum. It explains how cast iron is produced, an overview of southern Luxembourg development and has a 40 m high viewing point from where you can have a nice view of the town.
• National Museum of the Resistence (14-18 Tue-Sun; free): museum which shows traces of Luxembourgish history between 1940 and 1945 during the Nazi Germany occupation, the reactions of the people, Nazi represion and concentration camps and the Luxembourgish Jews fate. 
• Museum of the Cockerill Mine (8-12 and 13-17 Mon-Fri; free): unique mine which major role in Luxembourg’s economic boom and whose extraction was largely made by galleries. Nowadays it hosts a museum which displays minery objects and vehicles, fossils found during work and photographies.
• In the nearby town of Rumelange (Rëmeleng in Luxembourgish, Rümelingen in German), 7 km south-east from Esch, can be found the National Mining Museum (14-18 Tue-Sun from Jul to Aug; 14-18 Thu-Sun from Apr to Jun and Sep; 9€/ 7€/ 5€  adults/ retiree and students/ kids under 15), a museum about minery history from the 19th century to the 1980s, partially placed in a mine gallery. It shows the arduous nature of the miner's work.
• Just 11 km west from Esch is located Differdange (Déifferdeng in Luxembourgish and Differdingen in German), a town with 26,000 inhabitants which is the third most populated in the country. It some interesting attractions like Differdange Castle (16th century castle used as headquarters of the University of Miami in Europe), Differdange Old Abbey (13th century Cistercian abbey) and Fond-de-Gras, a complex formed by the mining train (7€/ 5.50€/ free  adults/ kids under 12/ kids under 4) which takes the visitor to the village of Lasauvage. Near it there are also Titelberg (a Celtic settlement) and the Giele Botter (former mine being redeveloped).
• In the area there are some trails like RedRock MTB Trail "Haard-red", a demanding mountainbike trail which goes around Rumelange and Dudelange.

Blast Furnace in Belval

National Museum of Resistence

Local Museum Dudelange

 In the east of Esch-sur-Alzette, 10 km from it, can be found Dudelange (Diddeleng in Luxembourgish, Düdelingen in German), a town with 19,734 inhabitants and the fourth most populated in the country. There are some interesting museums like Regional Museum of Forced Conscription (9-12 Thu and booking in advance; free), museum about the evacuation of the men of Dudelange, the German occupation, the forced enlistment, the militia and the liberation; Local Museum Dudelange (13-17 Mon-Sat; free), small museum with a rich collection of paleontological objects; Documentation Centre for Human Migrations, institution which carries on researches and organises exhibitions on history of migrations, mainly in the context of Luxembourg and its neighbouring regions; and Exhibition "The Bitter Years"(12-18 Wed-Sun from Mar to Jan; 6€/ 4€/ free  adults/ reduced/ people under 21), photography exposition by E. Steichen about the rural America during the Great Depression. The town has some castle ruins, Dudelange Castle ones, which was destroyed in the 16th century by Charles V and it has a museum (15-18 Wed-Sun) too.

Where can I eat in Esch-sur-Alzette?

There aren't many culinary offers in Esch-sur-Alzette but you can try one among them, for example in the Italian Il Belvedere (52 Rue du Stade) or Tower Café (4 pl Boltgen).

Posted in: Europe,Luxembourg