Echternach, Willibrord's town on the banks of the Sûre

Echternach has something the rest of Luxembourg lacks, which is the feel of a genuinely old town. Not because of its size, as it only just tops 6,000 people, but because everything turns on an abbey founded in the 7th century and a saint who still draws thousands of people every spring. If I could only see one town outside the capital, it would be this one.

A town built around an abbey

Willibrord was a monk from Northumbria who ended up as archbishop of the Frisians. In 698 Irmina of Oeren gave him an estate at Echternach, and he founded a Benedictine abbey there that the town then grew around. He died in 739 and was buried in his church, and pilgrims have kept coming ever since. Almost everything you’ll see here goes back to that.

Echternach Abbey and its basilica are the first stop. The building takes its shape from the 11th and 13th centuries, was blown up by retreating German troops in December 1944 and reconsecrated in 1953. Down in the Carolingian crypt, the saint’s sarcophagus sits inside a white marble monument, with fragments of 11th-century frescoes on the vault. Next door, the abbot’s palace of 1727 houses a museum with facsimiles of the manuscripts made in the abbey’s scriptorium.

The market square and the Dënzelt

Five minutes away is the market square, the view on every postcard. The building that dominates it is the Dënzelt, the old courthouse, partly late 14th century and rebuilt after the fire of 1444. It had a torture room and a prison. The windows show Gothic turning into Renaissance, and the Virgin, King Solomon and the cardinal virtues on the front were added during the 1898 restoration.

From the square, rue de la Montagne passes the stone marking the town’s 1,300th anniversary and climbs to St Peter and Paul’s Church, on the hill where the Romans kept towers to watch the Sûre. Inside is a well 12 m deep. Willibrord’s relics spent almost a hundred years here, which is why the dancing procession ended at this church until the early 20th century.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Echternach before prices climb.

Is the heritage walk worth it?

If you’re not in a hurry, yes. The Via Epternacensis runs 3.66 km with 15 stops, about two hours on foot according to visitluxembourg, from the tourist office. It takes in the basilica and the procession documentation centre, the abbey with its orangery, the monks’ garden and the Rococo pavilion in the park, then follows the town wall to the Gothic house and the market square and finishes at St Peter and Paul. The last two stops, the Lady Chapel and the Roman villa, are outside the old centre.

Whit Tuesday in Echternach

Echternach is famous across Europe for the Echternach dancing procession, on UNESCO’s intangible heritage register since 2010. It happens every Whit Tuesday in honour of Willibrord. Pilgrims hop forward in rows linked by white handkerchiefs, in time with brass bands, from the abbey courtyard to the saint’s tomb. If your trip coincides, book a bed well ahead.

The rest of the year, cultural life revolves around the Trifolion, on Porte Saint-Willibrord, a few steps from the basilica. It’s a modern 700-seat venue that, according to visitluxembourg, puts on around 200 events a year, from concerts and theatre to literary evenings, talks and family shows. I’d check its programme before booking, because an evening concert makes a real difference to a two-day break.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Echternach before prices climb.

Beyond the old walls

At the entrance to town, coming from Luxembourg City, is Echternach lake, man-made and 30 hectares, with a path around it, pedalos and a free swimming area in summer. On its shore lie the remains of one of the largest Roman villas in the Trier area. Towards Berdorf, less than an hour’s walk away, the Mullerthal rocks begin, with the Wolfsschlucht gorge as the first big stop on Route 2 of the Trail.

If you’d like a walk without leaving town, visitluxembourg publishes two waymarked loops by the lake. The easy one circles the water in 3.25 km and about an hour and a quarter, suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs. The Auto-Pédestre Echternach Lac circuit, 7.42 km, 2 hours 5 minutes and 185 m of climbing, starts at the Millenoacht park and ride, climbs steeply onto the Haard plateau following a blue arrow and reaches a viewpoint over the valley, the old town and the lake. For something bigger, two of the three loops of the Mullerthal Trail set off from the basilica door.

Getting there and around

Echternach has no railway. Coming from the UK, you’ll most likely fly into Findel or arrive by train in Luxembourg City and carry on by bus. The Mullerthal Trail website lists the direct 201, or the 211 and 212, every half hour from the Kirchberg Luxexpo stop, and buses are free throughout the country. The town bus is free too. If you drive, I’d park at Nonnemillen by the lake and ride in. One last thing that helps make sense of the place. The parish says Second World War bombing flattened the town, and there was fighting here in the Battle of the Bulge, so much of the old centre is careful post-war rebuilding.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Echternach and choose by the reviews.

A car frees you from timetables: search car hire in Luxembourg on DiscoverCars and compare companies.

So you do not pay over the odds, look at trains, coaches and flights to Luxembourg on Omio and pick the one that suits you.