Pulvermühl, where Luxembourg's industry was born

Few visitors have heard of Pulvermühl, which is understandable given it’s the smallest of Luxembourg City’s 24 districts. It squeezes into 24.82 hectares of the Alzette valley and had 393 residents at the end of 2023. Yet this wooded hollow under steep rock is where Luxembourg first industrialised, and that gives it more interest than its size suggests.

A gunpowder mill

The name means gunpowder mill, quite literally. The tourist office records a mill here in 1562 where Peter Ernst of Mansfeld, governor and marshal of the Spanish armies, had charcoal ground for black powder. The old spelling, Polffermillen, comes from a miller named Peter Polffer. After Mansfeld’s death the mill became an oil mill and then a spinning mill, but the name stuck and since 1920 has covered the whole district.

Why call it the cradle of industry?

Because of the Godchaux family. In 1835 the brothers bought a wool spinning and weaving business here, and through the 19th century their works «op der Schläifmillen» grew into the biggest textile factory in the country. They bought up every mill in the valley, the Schleifmühle, the Gantenbeinsmühle, the Follmühle, the Pulvermühle itself and the Bonnevoie mill, and linked them into one operation. It’s hard to picture now, and that contrast is exactly what I like about the place.

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A walk by the Alzette

What you’ll actually find is a green valley with a fitness trail and a cycle path by the river, and footpaths named after animals and trees, Écureuil, Tilleul and Fouine among them. Joggers, cyclists and kayakers use it on weekday evenings and at weekends, says the tourist office. Overhead runs the Pulvermühl viaduct, the Biisser Bréck, one of four stone railway viaducts in the city, 242 metres long. You’ll find it with the others in the bridges in Luxembourg City.

There’s even a literary footnote. According to the tourist office, James Joyce passed through and left the name Pulvermühle in Finnegans Wake.

Fitting it into a visit

The easiest approach is from Hamm, under a quarter of an hour downhill from the church, which pairs neatly with Luxembourg American Cemetery up on the plateau. For a guided version, the tourist office sells the Godchaux Circular Walk, two hours of woods and mills for groups of up to 20, from €150 per group, starting at the Tennis Club Bonnevoie. To ride the valley, see cycling in Luxembourg. And if you’re walking up from the Grund, Pulvermühl is the natural end of the riverside route the tourist office suggests, heading upstream past green slopes, fitness stations and play areas. Allow an hour or so if you’re just passing through.

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

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