All activities / Museums & Galleries / Luxembourg City
Museums & Galleries in Luxembourg City
The capital of the Grand Duchy, dramatically set on sandstone cliffs above the Alzette and Petrusse gorges. Its old quarters and fortifications are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, honeycombed with the Bock and Petrusse casemates, and the Kirchberg plateau holds the I.M. Pei-designed Mudam contemporary art museum.
Why here
Luxembourg City is a museum you walk into before you reach the first gallery, because the old town itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its quarters and fortifications were inscribed in 1994, and their heart is the Bock, the cliff promontory where Count Sigfried built his castle in 963 and where later engineers tunnelled 17 kilometres of casemates, the underground galleries that once held cannon and garrisons and still burrow through the rock. Walking them, and following the Wenzel circular route through the ramparts and the Corniche called the most beautiful balcony in Europe, is the clearest way to read a thousand years of fortress history in stone. Above ground the city carries that into modern collections, above all Mudam, the national contemporary art museum that I.M. Pei set on the ruins of Fort Thungen on Kirchberg, so old fortress and new architecture literally share a footprint. Together the casemates and the museums make the capital a single layered gallery of Luxembourg.
Best months
The museums and the casemates are open year-round and work in any weather, which makes the city an easy base whatever the season. The Bock casemates run daily on a fixed timed-entry schedule and close only on 25 December and 1 January; the open-air Wenzel and Corniche walks are best in dry weather from spring to autumn, when the gorges are green. Mudam and the other Kirchberg and old-town museums close on some Tuesdays and public holidays, so check hours before a visit. Several museums share the Museumsmile card.
Getting there & around
Everything sits in or beside the compact old town, walkable from the central station and served by the city's free trams and buses, with a free lift and funicular linking the upper town to the valley. The Bock casemates, the Wenzel walk and the old-town museums cluster within a few streets; Mudam is a short tram ride out to Kirchberg. Public transport is free nationwide. Buy timed casemates tickets ahead in summer, and allow a full day to combine the fortifications with one or two museums.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
Luxembourg City Tourist Office
OrganizerThe Luxembourg City Tourist Office operates the Bock casemates, the underground galleries cut into the promontory where Count Sigfried founded the city in 963 and expanded by Austrian engineers from 1745. It runs the daily timed casemates visits and the programme of guided city walks, including the Wenzel circular route through the UNESCO fortifications inscribed in 1994 and the panoramic Corniche. Its guides cover the history of the fortress-city once called the Gibraltar of the North.
Mudam
OrganizerMudam, the Musee d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, is Luxembourg's national contemporary art museum, opened in 2006 in a building designed by I.M. Pei on the ruins of Fort Thungen on Kirchberg. Pei kept the old fortress walls and set a glass-and-stone pavilion above them, so the museum is both a landmark of modern architecture and part of the city's fortress heritage. Its collection and changing exhibitions span international contemporary art across painting, design, photography and installation.