
Did You Know?

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is a fascinating
place, with a touch of difference. Without any particular order, here's a selection
of Facts and Trivia about the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Please email
us if you would like to contribute to this page.
- Luxembourg
is the sixth-smallest country and the only Grand Duchy in the world. The country
measures just 51 miles (max North-South) by 32 miles (max East-West), and
has a population of 420 000 comprising the highest proportion of inhabitants
with a foreign passport among the EU countries.
More info: Luxembourg in a Nutshell and Luxembourg
in figures
- Luxembourg
has more Michelin-starred Restaurants per square mile (or per head of inhabitant)
than any other country in the world.
See also: Recipes from Luxembourg
- The Prince
of Wales's motto is said to be derived from "John
the Blind" (1296-1346),
Earl of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, known in Luxembourg as "Jang
de Blannen". Blind as he was, he insisted on fighting in the Battle of
Crécy in 1346 (helping Philippe of France against Edouard III of England),
so he had himself strapped to his charger, and headed his troops into battle.
Mortally wounded, he lay dying on the battlefield, when the "Black Knight"
passed by, picked up his shield with the three feathers and the motto "Ich
Dien", and said: "There lies the Prince of Chivalry, but he does
not die". The "Black Knight" of course was none else but the
Prince of Wales. [Note:
In spite of this story being told in many a History book, modern research
on the Battle of Crécy does not place the
"Black Knight" and "John the Blind" any
closer than 500 yards from each other in the course of the battle. Did one
of his men pick up the shield, or did he recover it after the battle? The
fact remains that the Prince of Wales acquired his shield and motto at this
very battle.]
The same "John
of Luxembourg", as he is known in the Czech
Republic, successor to King Wenceslas III (1289-1306) [note: not
"Good King Wenceslas" known from the carol!], was father to
Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, known today as the Father of the Czech Nation.
By the time Wenceslas, the son of Charles IV, gained the throne, the House
of Luxembourg ruled a territory some 500 times the size of today's Luxembourg.
See also: Luxembourg
Sovereigns
- Grand Duke Jean,
the father of Luxembourg's current Head of State, Grand Duke Henri, actively
participated in the D-Day landings. Grand Duke Jean's father was a British
Brigadier.
Grand Duke Jean is a Knight of the Garter and Colonel of the Irish Guards,
therefore rides immediately behind H.M. The Queen during the "Trooping
the Colour" ceremony, along with Prince Charles, Prince Philip, and the
Duke of Kent.
Incidentally, the Luxembourg Army trains at Sandhurst. While the Grand Duchy
does not have no Navy nor Air Force, the country does have a sea-going flag.
NATO's entire fleet of Airborne Early Warning reconnaissance aircraft is registered
in Luxembourg.
See also: Luxembourg
Grand-Ducal Family Tree
- Luxembourg's
Head of State, Grand Duke Henri is the youngest European Monarch.
- The ASTRA
satellites are owned by and controlled from Luxembourg. They bring you the
"SKY" programmes along with all the new digital channels which are
beginning to hit our television screens
- Luxembourg
is the world's 8th largest banking centre. See
also Luxembourg for finance
- Government Ministers
list their direct lines in the local telephone directory.
- Luxembourg's
only Saint: "Saint Willibrord" was born in Northumbria (658) and
educated in Ireland. He built an Abbey in Echternach (where he also died on
Nov 7, 739), and to this day, the famous "Dancing
Procession" pilgrimage to his shrine (the only "dancing procession"
in the World) happens every year on Tuesday after Whitsun. More info: Catholic
Encyclopedia , Willibrord.lu
- Karl Marx
(born in Trier [Germany], 8 miles from the Luxembourg border), was prompted
to consider the economic reasons for social conditions when seeing the abject
poverty of winegrowers on the Luxembourg Moselle - a great contrast with today's
economic success of Luxembourg. (contributor: Bob
West)
- There
are large communities of ex-Luxembourgers living in America (eg the village
of "Rolling Stone" was funded by emigrants from the Luxembourg village
of "Rollingergrund"), and in Romania (in the area known as "Siebenbürgen").
An old form of Lëtzebuergesch,
is still today spoken in those parts.
See also: Luxembourgers
in the New World
- Among
Luxembourg's "Sporting Greats" we mention:
The most outstanding performance by a Luxembourg sportsman dates back to 1952,
when Josy Barthel became
Gold Medalist in the 1500 metres event at the Helsinki Olympic Games.
In 1909 François Faber was the first non-Frenchman to win the hardest
and best known cycle race in the world, the "Tour de France". Three
times more did a Luxembourger win this race: Nicolas
Frantz in 1928 and in 1929, and Charly
Gaul in 1958 (who also won the Tour of Italy twice).
More recent are the performances of skier Marc
Girardelli, a chosen Luxembourger: five times World Cup winner, World
Champion, and Silver medalist at the Olympic Games.
Further Luxembourg World Champions were among others: Sylvie Hülsemann
(water-skiing), Elsy Jacobs (cycling), Jean Link (fencing), Guy Moyano (hot-air
ballooning), Jeannot Peters (bowling), Fonsy Grethen (billiards), Pierre Zirves
(sea-fishing).
François Mersch made a fine career for himself as a sprinter and long-jumper;
the high-point of his sporting career came in June 1938 when he achieved a
national record with a long jump of 7.44 metres.
More recently, David Fiegen won a silver medal at the
2006 European Athletics Championships in Göteborg (Sweden) in
the 800
m competition.
The 21-year-old Andy Schleck made a name for himself when he finished second
overall in the 2007 Giro d'Italia -cycling's most important race after the
Tour de France. His team mate Kim Kirchen also finished 2nd in the Tour de
Suisse and came 7th in the 2007 Tour de France. Such outstanding
results have put Luxembourg into 4th place worldwide where cycling is concerned.
- Henri
Tudor was a famous engineer from Luxembourg. He developed what was to
become the Tudor Accumulator, the first correctly functioning lead storage
battery in the world. We should also mention the Luxembourg-born William
J. Kroll, inducted in the year 2000 in the US "National Inventors
Hall of Fame", famous for his method of manufacturing titanium and alloys
thereof, and for his research into lead and a number of other metals.
See also the official Government web site for a listing of some famous
people from Luxembourg (presented in the French Language)
- The 1997 movie
"American Werewolf in Paris" was filmed in Luxembourg (contributor: Gary
Little) as was Shadow
of the Vampire".
Peter Webber's movie: "The girl with the pearl earrings" was largely
filmed in Luxembourg's Deluxe Studios in Contern and Esch-sur-Alzette.
See also: www.filmfund.lu.
- Luxembourg shares
the privilege of owning exactly one confluence
point reachable without the help of a boat or other vessel with St. Lucia,
Rwanda, Kuwait and Brunei. Some 600m from Enscherange
in the vicinity of Wiltz is the country's only spot where a line of latitude
and longitude cross: 50°N 6°E. (contributor: Gilles Kohl)
And while we're on the subject: The following site lists Sunrise,
sunset, dawn and dusk times for a number of localities in Luxembourg.
- There is a cheering
section for the Knights of Luxembourg at the jousting show at the Excalibur
Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. (contributor: Gary
Little)
- Hugo Gernsback,
the founder of Amazing Stories, and thus the father of modern science fiction,
was born in Luxembourg. The Hugo Award is named after him.
He emigrated to the USA in 1905. He also pioneered amateur radio and electronics.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Gernsback
(contributor:
Mike Pieke )
- Flag Day in
the USA became established through a person whose father came from Luxembourg.
- Bernard
J. Cigrand & the Flag Day
- 1777 Jun 14
Congress defined the layout of the US flag
- 1831 Nicholas
Cigrand (Bernard's father) was born in Luxembourg
- 1852 Nicholas
Cigrand arrived in New York, worked as a blacksmith and wagonmaker
- 1866 Oct 1
- Bernard J. Cigrand born in Waubeka
- 1885 Jun 14
- first recognized observance of the flag birthday
- 1916 Jun 14
- President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the national observance of Flag Day
- 1932 Bernard
J. Cigrand +
(contributor: Fernand Pletschette)
- Luxembourg has
6 golf courses, most of them within 30 minutes drive of the Capital
(just one course is about 50 minutes away from Luxembourg City in Clervaux,
in the "Ardennes", what the Luxembourgers sometimes refer to as
"Far North"!)
More Info: Golf in Luxembourg

last
update: May 13, 2008