Feulen, the commune at the root of Luxembourg City

Feulen has a story you wouldn’t expect from a commune of 2,431 people. According to the history on its website, in 963 Count Siegfried of the Ardennes exchanged his Feulen estates with the abbey of St Maximin in Trier for the Bock rock, and with that deal laid the foundation stone of Luxembourg City. If you’ve been round the Bock casemates, you’ve seen the other half of the bargain.

Two villages in the Wark valley

The commune is two villages, Niederfeulen on the Feul stream and Oberfeulen on the Michelbach, both feeding the Wark, across 2,276 hectares west of Ettelbruck. The council’s history says the area was settled long before 963, with a Stone Age tool workshop on the Bucheknapp, Celtic burial mounds and Roman remains, some with underfloor heating. In 893 King Arnulf had already given Feulen, then Fulina, to the abbey of St Maximin.

The monks built a first church around the year 1000 on a rise between the two villages, beside a Roman road. The present one dates from 1725. The photo at the top is the old cemetery at Oberfeulen, with its stone crosses.

Tanners, bark and the Hennesbau

In the 19th century Feulen was known across the country for its oak coppices, grown for tanning bark, which covered almost all the farmland. They brought bark mills and tanneries, and from that era survives the Hennesbau in Niederfeulen. The tanner Jean-Henri Elsen built it in 1827 as a bark mill, oil mill and sawmill on the Feul, and in 1851 it was bought by Jean-Pierre Berns of the Hennes house, which gave it its name. The commune acquired it in 1979 and turned it into an arts centre, keeping its bark-barn look. After the First World War came the distilleries, especially in Oberfeulen.

I find a building like this more telling than a castle. It shows you how people actually earned a living.

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

War and liberation

The commune recalls more than four years of Nazi rule and the forced conscription of young people. Feulen was liberated on 22 December 1944 by the 1st Battalion of the US 319th Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel Hiram Dudley Ives, who is an honorary citizen. Seventeen young men from Feulen never came back, and in 1951 a memorial was raised to them by the church and cemetery. Three days later Ettelbruck was freed by the 318th Regiment, as the General Patton museum in Ettelbruck explains.

Feulen and Mertzig

After the French Revolution, Feulen and Mertzig formed a single administrative unit, and Mertzig remained part of the commune of Feulen until 1 January 1875. Today they’re neighbours sharing the same landscape. For a bed, Ettelbruck or Diekirch are the practical choices, both a short drive east.

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

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

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