Place de Clairefontaine, Luxembourg's square for Grand Duchess Charlotte

Tucked between the cathedral and the ministries is a small square most visitors cross without reading the sign. Stop for a moment. Place de Clairefontaine is where Luxembourg honours Grand Duchess Charlotte, and through her a fair chunk of the country’s 20th century.

An abbey’s name on a city square

Despite how it sounds, the name has nothing to do with a spring. The LCTO explains it comes from a refuge that Clairefontaine Abbey, near today’s Belgian border, kept on this spot. That building was demolished in 1933. The abbey itself was founded by Countess Ermesinde, buried there in 1246, and after the third partition of the country in 1839 it ended up on the Belgian side.

The square you see now is much younger. It was redesigned in the late 1980s as part of a wholesale restoration of the district, which sits hard by Notre-Dame Cathedral and the government buildings.

Charlotte in bronze

On 29 April 1990, with the grand ducal family in attendance, a 2.75-metre bronze of Grand Duchess Charlotte was unveiled here. It’s the work of the Paris sculptor Jean Cardot. visitluxembourg counts it among the country’s best-known statues and points out that Charlotte, who lived from 1896 to 1985 and reigned from 1919 to 1964, was genuinely popular with Luxembourgers.

That popularity is what makes the square interesting to me. When Germany invaded in 1940, Charlotte and her government went into exile, spending time in Portugal, Canada and London, and she didn’t return until 14 April 1945. By the dates visitluxembourg gives, that’s 45 years on the throne, nearly five of them abroad. The statue reads less like official pomp and more like a country’s thank-you. For the monarchy today, see my page on the Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

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Where else does Charlotte turn up?

All over the city. The Red Bridge to Kirchberg is officially the Grand Duchess Charlotte Bridge, and she opened it herself in 1966. And Luxembourg’s national day is on 23 June because of her. Charlotte was born on 23 January, but as the LCTO puts it, January weather was deemed unsuitable for outdoor festivities, so the celebrations moved to June and the date has stayed put through later reigns.

Fitting it into a walk

Ten minutes is plenty, and that’s fine. I’d slot it in between the cathedral and the palace. The LCTO’s list of sights near the square reads like a ready-made route of its own, with the Chamber of Deputies, the Gëlle Fra memorial on Place de la Constitution, St Michael’s Church and the Corniche all within easy reach, so it’s easy to build a whole morning around it. Head south a few minutes and you reach the Saint-Esprit Plateau, where the national war memorial rounds off the same thread of history. It’s free, never closes and works as well after dark as by day.

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If you are short on time, see the best tours in Place de Clairefontaine and pick one that fits your day.

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