Luxembourg-Ville was long contained within its fortress. Since Roman times, it has been a fortified rocky outcrop at the intersection of major commercial routes. It was in this site known as the ‘‘Rock of Le Bock’’ that the Count of Ardennes, Sigefroy de Luxembourg (Siegfried), built his castle in 963 AD. In his wake, each occupant strengthened the fortifications. The history and identity of the ‘‘Gibraltar of the North’’ are thus closely tied to its fortress.

At the end of the 17th century, Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban, the Sun King’s military engineer, made it the world’s most unassailable site! After the conquest of Luxembourg in 1684, Louis XIV ordered Vauban to fortify the town. In four years, the engineer built walls, bastions, forts and trenches, highly ingenious at the time, in an area of 445 acres. The bunkers of Le Bock and La Pétrusse constitute a network of 17 km of underground galleries, unique worldwide. Part of which served as shelters during the bombings of the two World Wars.

As gigantic as it is, after the Dutch, Spanish, and Prussians, Vauban’s fortress could not resist… peace! In 1867, the Treaty of London declared Luxembourg a ‘‘neutral country’’. It then entered an era of industrialization and urban development.

Today, just 10% of the fortress remains visible. Tourists can thus follow the Vauban Circuit running through the town’s historic neighborhoods with their old gateways, bunkers, fortified bridges, and several bastions. The Wenzel Circuit called ‘‘1000 Years in 100 Minutes’’ also offers a trip back in time, with the Rock of Le Bock, the Old Town, the Wenceslas enclosure, the valley of L’Alzette, and its iconic fortifications. A precious legacy listed in UNESCO’s World Heritage, a stone’s throw from Le Royal!