Colmar-Berg, a royal residence in an old forge village

Colmar-Berg sounds like a castle town, and fair enough, since the head of state lives here. But the village’s own story is mostly industrial. First came the forges, then the tyres, and in between a grand ducal residence rebuilt from top to bottom in the early 20th century.

A Celtic name and very old roots

The commune’s website goes right back. There are flint tools from the Mousterian period, around 40,000 BC, dozens of burial mounds on Berg’s land and the remains of 3rd-century Roman farms. According to the commune, the name Colmar is Celtic, from col, hill, and mar, big. Berg first crops up in a document from the year 800.

Forges, furnaces and tyres

In the Middle Ages, between plague and war, Colmar, Berg and Welsdorf counted just 17 families in 1540 and 5 in 1641. Numbers picked up in the late 17th century with the Colmar forges, which brought in Walloon master smiths. The commune went from 502 people in 1834 to 671 in 1866, then lost some of them when the forges, blast furnaces and foundry shut in 1917.

The next boost came with Goodyear, which began making tyres in 1951 on the old forge site. That’s where, in 1960, the last trace of Bruckenberg castle came down, built by Jean Piret around 1655 beside the forge.

One relic of that era is, to my mind, the most genuine thing in the village. The commune notes that the cast-iron graves of the old ironmasters still stand in Berg cemetery, made from the same metal that fed the valley. It’s a short, free stop, and it says more about Colmar-Berg than any leaflet.

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What’s there for a visitor?

The draw is Berg Castle, the Grand Duke’s main residence. It isn’t open, but you can see the tower among the trees, and visitluxembourg notes that the flag on the roof shows whether the Grand Duke is home. If you want to go inside a royal residence, the one that opens in summer is the palace in the capital.

The village also has a park with a pond and a wooden kiosk, which you’ll cover in a few minutes. I wouldn’t give Colmar-Berg more than an hour, and I wouldn’t pretend it’s a destination.

Getting there and where to stay

Colmar-Berg station, on Rue de Cruchten, is a stop on CFL’s northern line, where second class costs nothing, like the rest of Luxembourg free public transport. STATEC doesn’t publish a separate hotel figure for the commune. For a bed I’d carry on to Diekirch or head back to Luxembourg City.

Although the commune is in the canton of Mersch, visitluxembourg places it in the north of the country, in the Luxembourg Ardennes. It’s a few stops from Mersch, whose castle is now the town hall, and from the Nordstad towns. Just north, neighbouring Schieren has a circular walk that loops back through Colmar-Berg. West along the Attert lies Bissen, with St Roch’s chapel up on the Wobierg.

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