The Passerelle, the old bridge with a strategic bend

Arrive in Luxembourg by train, walk towards the old town, and you’ll almost certainly end up crossing the Passerelle without thinking about it. It’s the 24-arch stone viaduct over the Pétrusse valley between the Gare district and the Ville Haute, and it’s far older and more interesting than it looks from the pavement. For me it’s the bridge with the best story in the capital, precisely because of a detail hardly anyone spots, its bend.

A bridge with three names

Before it existed, you reached the upper town from this side over a wooden footbridge, which is where the name everyone uses, the Passerelle, comes from. Officially it’s the Viaduc. And in the early 20th century it picked up a third name, the old bridge, when Adolphe Bridge was finished nearby in 1903 and became the new one.

It was built between 1859 and 1861, designed by engineers Édouard Grenier and Auguste Letellier and built by a British firm. The tourist office names it as Waring Brothers, the same company that put up the four stone railway viaducts across the Alzette valley.

The bend that isn’t a mistake

Look from below or from the park and you’ll notice the deck isn’t quite straight. There’s a gentle curve in the middle, and it’s no accident. According to the government portal, it reflects the defensive thinking of a city that in 1861 was still a fortress. In a siege, guns on the Plateau du Saint-Esprit would have had a straight bridge squarely in their sights. The Viaduc never had to prove the point, as the fortress was dismantled a few years later after the Treaty of London in 1867, and the bridge came through intact.

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The numbers

The tourist office provides the measurements. 290 metres long, 45 metres above the valley, 24 arches with spans of 8 to 15 metres and piers up to 30 metres tall. Thousands of cars cross it every day, according to the government portal, and from spring 2018 major works widened it by several metres. The aim was a broader pavement, a cycle lane, two traffic lanes and a bus lane linking the centre with the southern districts.

Where’s the best view of the Passerelle?

From below. The Pétrusse valley has a park with footpaths, the stream in its re-naturalised bed and the Péitruss skatepark right beneath the arches. From there the 24 arches and 30-metre piers show their full scale. In autumn, with the valley’s trees gone yellow and red, it’s one of the loveliest sights in the capital to my eye.

Up top, from the bridge itself, the valley opens out in front of you, with Adolphe Bridge to one side and the Luxembourg old town and its ramparts to the other.

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Fitting it into your visit

If you’re staying in the Gare district, the Passerelle is your natural route into the old town. I’d make my first entrance on foot this way, unhurried, and save Adolphe Bridge for viewing from the park. The one exception is if you’re dragging a suitcase straight off the train from Brussels. In that case I’d hop on the free T1 tram, which crosses the valley on Adolphe Bridge, drop the bags at the hotel and come back to walk the Passerelle properly later.

The city itself lists it among the district’s highlights under its Luxembourgish name, Al Bréck, alongside the Plateau Bourbon, which lies in the UNESCO buffer zone, Place de Paris and the Rousegärtchen on Place des Martyrs. In other words, the Passerelle is the hinge between the station district across the valley and the fortified city. Crossing it on foot takes you from one world to the other in a few minutes, with the green valley below, and to my mind there’s no better way to start a trip to Luxembourg.

One last practical note, because the name trips people up. Search for “Passerelle Luxembourg” and you’ll find two others. One is the 154-metre cycle bridge hung beneath Adolphe Bridge; the other is the Passerelle des Arts, a polished-steel footbridge and cycle bridge opened in Kirchberg in 2024, next to Mudam. All three, with the rest of the valley crossings, are in bridges in Luxembourg City.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in The Passerelle on GetYourGuide.

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