Mamer, a cycling commune on a Roman road

Mamer is the country’s tenth most populous commune, 11,583 people west of Luxembourg City, and at first glance it looks like nothing more than a well-connected suburb. Scratch the surface and there’s more. It sits on the great Roman road between Reims and Trier, keeps the remains of a Gallo-Roman settlement and has one of the best cycling stories in the Guttland.

Romans on both sides of the road

visitguttland tells it with relish. At the foot of the Tossebierg lie the remains of the baths of a sizeable vicus, a Gallo-Roman village, and at Capellen a 4th-century tile kiln was found. visitluxembourg adds that it turned up at Capellen-Hiereboesch, beside the Trier-Arlon-Reims road, and that its well-preserved firing chambers were moved to the centre of Capellen, opposite the church, where you can see them. Capellen also has a busy art gallery and an International Museum of Gendarmerie and Police.

The church and the castle

Mamer’s parish first appears in a document of 983. The little thatched chapel grew over the centuries, and in 1720 a single nave was added to the 16th-century choir, fitted out in baroque style by the Greeff workshop of Altwies between 1723 and 1738. After restoration from 1993 to 2003, visitluxembourg says experts hold it up as a model of light and colour. That alone justifies hopping off the train here, in my view.

The Mamer Schlass, home to the town hall since 1 March 2002, traces its origins to 960, when Countess Liutgardis gave the hamlet of Mamer to the Abbey of St Maximin in Trier. After the Revolution it was auctioned off, in 1830 Frédéric François rebuilt it as you see it now, walled the estate with a 2-metre wall and dug a 25-are pond, and in 1995 the commune bought it. It’s four buildings set in a park, and behind the main one a sculpture honours Nicolas Frantz and Josy Barthel, Olympic 1,500 metres champion at Helsinki in 1952.

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Things to do in Mamer

Get about by bike or on foot. Nicolas Frantz, who won the Tour de France in 1927 and 1928, ran a bike shop in Mamer, and one of the cycle paths crossing the commune carries his name. There’s bike hire, two circular walks, one of them step-free with the EureWelcome label, and a park for a stroll. That’s Parc Am Brill, which visitluxembourg places right behind the town hall at 1 Place de l’Indépendance, good for a rest or a game of something, with several play areas for small children. With kids in the car, it’s where I’d stop. The Mamer I walk starts from the Thillsmillen leisure area, climbs the Kielbaach valley to the Juckelsbësch plateau and returns down the Mamer valley. If you’re planning cycling in Luxembourg, Mamer is a good gateway to the west.

In the evening, the Kinneksbond arts centre on route d’Arlon puts on dance, concerts, theatre and exhibitions. The village of Holzem has kept its farms and traditional houses.

Getting there and staying

Mamer and Capellen both have stations on the line from the capital to Kleinbettingen and Arlon. visitguttland mentions a motel and a campsite, though STATEC counted just one hotel or similar establishment and no campsite in the commune in 2025. With free second-class trains, I’d stay in the capital.

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