Putscheid, seven villages between the Ardennes plateau and the Our

Putscheid is one of those communes hardly anyone searches for by name, yet it holds two of the loveliest corners of the Our valley. The commune explains it neatly itself. Of its seven villages, Bivels and Stolzembourg, the most visited, lie down in the valley, while the other five sit up on the Ardennes plateau. Between the two there’s a drop of almost 300 metres, from 228 to 523 metres.

A commune made from two older ones

Its administrative history is more curious than you’d expect. According to the commune’s website, Putscheid was created by royal decree on 26 May 1826, merging the old communes of Stolzembourg and Landscheid. A year later, on 25 October 1827, the Landscheid section was handed to Bastendorf, and the territory hasn’t changed since. Earlier, in 1815, the Congress of Vienna had left the hamlets of Keppeshausen and Waldhof across the river, in Prussia.

Today it covers 27.13 km², and STATEC put its population at 1,191 on 1 January 2026. Only Saeul has fewer in the whole country.

Bivels, the village that stayed on this side

Bivels has a very specific border story. In 1799 it belonged, mill and all, to the commune of Falkenstein, now in Germany. When the river became the frontier in 1815, the Bivels section was the only part of that commune left in the Grand Duchy, and it was joined to Stolzembourg. Today it’s a handful of houses on a bend of the Our between wooded slopes, and for me one of the most photogenic spots in the valley.

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

The sky as the draw

In 2026 Putscheid was certified as a Dark Sky Community by DarkSky International, the first in Luxembourg. The commune began switching its street lighting to low colour-temperature LEDs in 2017, has gone down to 2,200 K since 2022 and uses on-demand lighting across its territory. For a visitor, that means properly dark nights. I’d make the most of it on a clear evening up on the plateau.

What to do by day

Down in Stolzembourg you’ll find the old copper mine museum and the SEO pumped-storage plant. The 8.5 km Ourdall path links Stolzembourg with Vianden along the riverbank, with ten information stops. Up top, visitluxembourg suggests a walk of about 10 km that starts at the school in Gralingen, crosses the Pédbësch forest, drops into the valley of the Blees, a tributary of the Sûre roughly 20 km long, down to the hamlet of Markebaach, and returns through the Stool valley. Everything in this corner, river path and plateau walk alike, sits inside the Our Nature Park.

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

Where to stay

STATEC counted no hotels in Putscheid in 2025, just one campsite. The obvious base is Vianden, the neighbouring commune in the same canton, which had seven.

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

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So you do not pay over the odds, look at trains, coaches and flights to Luxembourg on Omio and pick the one that suits you.