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Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France to the south and west. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembourg City, is one of the four institutional seats of the European Union and hosts several EU institutions, notably the Court of Justice of the European Union, the highest judicial authority in the EU.
As part of the Low Countries, Luxembourg has close historic, political, and cultural ties to Belgium and the Netherlands. Luxembourg's culture, people, and languages are greatly influenced by France and Germany: Luxembourgish, a Germanic language, is the only recognised national language of the Luxembourgish people and of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; French is the sole language for legislation; and both languages along with German are used for administrative matters.
With an area of 2,586 square kilometres (998 sq mi), Luxembourg is Europe's seventh-smallest country. In 2026, it had a population of 696,268, which makes it one of the least-populated countries in Europe, albeit with the highest population growth rate; foreign nationals account for almost half the population. Luxembourg is a representative democracy headed by a constitutional monarch, Grand Duke Guillaume V, making it the world's only remaining sovereign grand duchy.
The County of Luxembourg was established in the 11th century as a state within the Holy Roman Empire. Its ascension culminated in its monarch, Henry VII, becoming the Holy Roman Emperor in the 14th century. Luxembourg came under Habsburg rule in the 15th century, and was annexed by France in the 18th century. Luxembourg was partitioned three times, reducing its size. Having been restored in 1815 after the defeat of Napoleon, it regained independence in 1867 after the Luxembourg Crisis.
Luxembourg is a developed country with an advanced economy and one of the world's highest PPP-adjusted GDPs per capita, per the IMF and World Bank. It also ranks highly in terms of life expectancy, human development, and human rights. The historic city of Luxembourg was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 due to the exceptional preservation of its vast fortifications and historic quarters. Luxembourg is a founding member of the European Union, OECD, the United Nations, NATO, and the Benelux. It served on the United Nations Security Council for the first time in 2013 and 2014.
The first traces of settlement in what is now Luxembourg are dated back to the Palaeolithic Age, about 35,000 years ago. From the 6th century BC, Celtic tribes settled in the region between the rivers Rhine and Meuse.
Six centuries later, the Romans named the Celtic tribes inhabiting these exact regions collectively as the Treveri. Many examples of archaeological evidence proving their existence in Luxembourg have been discovered, the most famous being the Oppidum of Titelberg.
In around 58 to 51 BC, the Romans invaded the country when Julius Caesar conquered Gaul and part of Germania up to the Rhine border, thus the area of what is now Luxembourg became part of the Roman Empire for the next 450 years, living in relative peace under the Pax Romana.
Similar to those in Gaul, the Celts of Luxembourg adopted Roman culture, language, morals and a way of life, effectively becoming what historians later described as Gallo-Roman civilization. Evidence from that period includes the Dalheim Ricciacum and the Vichten mosaic, on display at the National Museum of History and Art in Luxembourg City.
The territory was infiltrated by the Germanic Franks from the 4th century, and was abandoned by Rome in AD 406, after which it became part of the Kingdom of the Franks. The Salian Franks who settled in the area are often described as the ones having brought the Germanic language to present-day Luxembourg, since the old Frankish language spoken by them is considered by linguists to be a direct forerunner of the Moselle Franconian dialect, which later evolved into, among others, the modern-day Luxembourgish language.
The Christianization of Luxembourg is usually dated back to the end of the 7th century. The most famous figure in this context is Willibrord, a Northumbrian missionary saint, who together with other monks established the Abbey of Echternach in AD 698, and is celebrated annually in the dancing procession of Echternach. For a few centuries the abbey would become one of northern Europe's most influential. The Codex Aureus of Echternach, an important surviving codex written entirely in gold ink, was produced here in the 11th century. The so-called Emperor's Bible and the Golden Gospels of Henry III were also produced in Echternach at this time.
When the Carolingian Empire was divided many times starting with the Treaty of Verdun in 843, today's Luxembourgish territory became successively part of the Kingdom of Middle Francia (843–855), the Kingdom of Lotharingia (855–959) and finally of the Duchy of Lorraine (959–1059), which itself had become a state of the Holy Roman Empire.
The recorded history of Luxembourg begins with the acquisition of Lucilinburhuc (today Luxembourg Castle) situated on the Bock rock by Siegfried, Count of the Ardennes, in 963 through an exchange act with St. Maximin's Abbey, Trier. Around this fort, a town gradually developed, which became the centre of a state of great strategic value within the Duchy of Lorraine. Over the years, the fortress was extended by Siegfried's descendants and by 1083, one of them, Conrad I, was the first to call himself a "Count of Luxembourg", and with it effectively creating the independent County of Luxembourg (which was still a state within the Holy Roman Empire).
By the middle of the 13th century, the counts of Luxembourg had managed to gain considerable wealth and power and had expanded their territory from the river Meuse to the Moselle. By the time of the reign of Henry V the Blonde, Bitburg, La Roche-en-Ardenne, Durbuy, Arlon, Thionville, Marville, Longwy, and in 1264 the competing County of Vianden (and with it St Vith and Schleiden) had either been incorporated directly or become vassal states to the County of Luxembourg. The only major setback during their rise in power came in 1288, when Henry VI and his three brothers died at the Battle of Worringen while trying unsuccessfully to add the Duchy of Limburg to their realm. But despite the defeat, the Battle of Worringen helped the Counts of Luxembourg to achieve military glory, which they had previously lacked, as they had mostly enlarged their territory by means of inheritances, marriages and fiefdoms.
The ascension of the Counts of Luxembourg culminated when Henry VII became King of the Romans, King of Italy and finally, in 1312, Holy Roman Emperor.
With the ascension of Henry VII as Emperor, the dynasty of the House of Luxembourg not only began to rule the Holy Roman Empire, but rapidly began to exercise growing influence over other parts of Central Europe as well.
Henry's son, John the Blind, in addition to being Count of Luxembourg, also became King of Bohemia. He remains a major figure in Luxembourgish history and folklore and is considered by many historians the epitome of chivalry in mediaeval times. He is also known for having founded the Schueberfouer in 1340 and for his heroic death at the Battle of Crécy in 1346. John the Blind is considered a national hero in Luxembourg.
In the 14th and early 15th centuries, three more members of the House of Luxembourg reigned as Holy Roman Emperors and Bohemian Kings: John's descendants Charles IV, Sigismund (who also was King of Hungary and Croatia), and Wenceslaus IV. Charles IV created the long-lasting Golden Bull of 1356, a decree which fixed important aspects of the constitutional structure of the Empire. Luxembourg remained an independent fief (county) of the Holy Roman Empire, and in 1354, Charles IV elevated it to the status of a duchy with his half-brother Wenceslaus I becoming the first Duke of Luxembourg. While his kin were occupied ruling and expanding their power within the Holy Roman Empire and elsewhere, Wenceslaus, annexed the County of Chiny in 1364, and with it, the territories of the new Duchy of Luxembourg reached its greatest extent.
During these 130 years, the House of Luxembourg was contending with the House of Habsburg for supremacy within the Holy Roman Empire and Central Europe. It all came to end in 1443, when the House of Luxembourg suffered a succession crisis, precipitated by the lack of a male heir to assume the throne. Since Sigismund and Elizabeth of Görlitz were both heirless, all possessions of the Luxembourg Dynasty were redistributed among the European aristocracy. The Duchy of Luxembourg become a possession of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.
As the House of Luxembourg had become extinct and Luxembourg now became part of the Burgundian Netherlands, this would mark the start of nearly 400 years of foreign rule over Luxembourg.
In 1482, Philip the Handsome inherited all of what became then known as the Habsburg Netherlands, and with it the Duchy of Luxembourg. For nearly 320 years Luxembourg would remain a possession of the mighty House of Habsburg, at first under Austrian rule (1506–1556), then under Spanish rule (1556–1714), before going back again to Austrian rule (1714–1794). With having become a Habsburg possession, the Duchy of Luxembourg became, like many countries in Europe at the time, heavily involved in the many conflicts for dominance of Europe between the Habsburg-held countries and the Kingdom of France.
In 1542, the King of France, François I, invaded Luxembourg twice, but the Habsburgs under Charles V managed to reconquer the Duchy each time.
Luxembourg became part of the Spanish Netherlands in 1556, and when France and Spain went to war in 1635 it resulted in the Treaty of the Pyrenees, in which the first partition of Luxembourg was decided. Under the Treaty, Spain ceded the Luxembourgish fortresses of Stenay, Thionville, and Montmédy, and the surrounding territory to France, effectively reducing the size of Luxembourg for the first time in centuries.
In context of the Nine Years' War in 1684, France invaded Luxembourg again, conquering and occupying the Duchy until 1697 when it was returned to the Spanish to garner support for the Bourbon cause during the prelude to the War of the Spanish Succession. When the war broke out in 1701 Luxembourg and the Spanish Netherlands were administered by the pro-French faction under the governor Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria and sided with the Bourbons. The duchy was subsequently occupied by the pro-Austrian allied forces during the conflict and was awarded to Austria at its conclusion in 1714.
As the Duchy of Luxembourg repeatedly passed back and forth from Spanish and Austrian to French rule, each of the conquering nations contributed to strengthening and expanding the Fortress that the Castle of Luxembourg had become over the years. One example of this includes French military engineer Marquis de Vauban who advanced the fortifications around and on the heights of the city, fortification walls that are still visible today.
During the War of the First Coalition, Revolutionary France invaded the Austrian Netherlands, and with it, Luxembourg. In the years 1793 and 1794 most of the Duchy was conquered relatively quickly and the French Revolutionary Army committed many atrocities and pillages against the Luxembourgish civilian population and abbeys, the most infamous being the massacres of Differdange and Dudelange, as well as the destruction of the abbeys of Clairefontaine, Echternach and Orval. However the Fortress of Luxembourg resisted for nearly 7 months before the Austrian forces holding it surrendered. Luxembourg's long defence led Lazare Carnot to call Luxembourg "the best fortress in the world, except Gibraltar", giving rise to the city's nickname the Gibraltar of the North.
Luxembourg was annexed by France, becoming the département des forêts (department of forests), and the incorporation of the former Duchy as a département into France was formalised at the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. From the start of the occupation the new French officials in Luxembourg, who spoke only French, implemented many republican reforms, among them the principle of laicism, which led to an outcry in strongly Catholic Luxembourg. Additionally French was implemented as the only official language and Luxembourgish people were barred access to all civil services. When the French Army introduced military duty for the local population, riots broke out which culminated in 1798 when Luxembourgish peasants started a rebellion. Even though the French managed to rapidly suppress this revolt called Klëppelkrich, it had a profound effect on the historical memory of the country and its citizens.
However, many republican ideas of this era continue to have a lasting effect on Luxembourg; one of the many examples features the implementation of the Napoleonic Code Civil which was introduced in 1804 and is still valid today.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Luxembourg”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.