Schieren, a Nordstad village told through its past

Schieren sits just south of Ettelbruck, and it’s one of those communes that never makes the guidebooks because it has no castle or museum of its own. STATEC counts 2,172 residents across three localities, Schieren, Birtrange and Colmar-Pont, and it’s growing, up from 2,123 a year earlier.

The KulTour, history in old photographs

The best thing it offers visitors is the KulTour, a 1.7 km walk that visitluxembourg describes warmly. Along the way, panels show old photographs taken from the same angle as today, so you can compare the village with how it looked more than a century ago. You’ll see the schools, the two stations it once had, Villa Toussaint and the building that is now the town hall, the villa with bay windows shown in the header photo, along with streets, farms and the old cafés that were the heart of village life.

I like it as an honest way to show a village without monuments. It doesn’t sell you anything that isn’t there, and in under an hour you understand how people in the valley lived.

A loop through the woods

For a longer walk, the circular route starts by the church at 79 route de Luxembourg, follows the Kiselbaach stream and makes a wide loop around the Knuppen, the hill east of the village. It’s 7.44 km, about two hours ten minutes, with 170 metres of climbing, and it comes back through the woods via Colmar-Berg, the commune of the grand-ducal castle.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Diekirch on Booking.com and filter by area before price.

Schieren and the Nordstad

The commune’s website presents the Nordstad as the economic hub of the north, covering some 92 km² with around 24,000 residents across its communes. Today four of them, Schieren, Diekirch, Erpeldange-sur-Sûre and Ettelbruck, are preparing to merge. According to the Nordstad website they meet almost every week, the decision will be a yes-or-no referendum planned for autumn 2027 and, if it passes, a joint council could be elected in 2029.

It isn’t the first attempt. Between 2018 and 2024 the talks involved five communes, including Bettendorf, but there a 2024 referendum returned a yes and the council still decided to pull out. The figures the communes publish explain the determination, as a merger would lift annual income by around €11 million, mainly by extending to the whole area the development-centre status that only three of them currently enjoy.

Getting there and staying

visitluxembourg names Schieren among the places easily reached by bus from Ettelbruck, and public transport is free throughout Luxembourg. For a bed, Ettelbruck or Diekirch make sense, with hotels and a station, and both are on the CFL line from Luxembourg City. Look at hotels in Diekirch and Ettelbruck if you’re using the area as a base for the north.

To sleep close to everything, search places to stay in Diekirch on Expedia and filter by area before price.

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

Where the bus does not go, a car does: compare car hire in Luxembourg before you arrive rather than at the desk.

If you still need a way in, check the best ticket deals to Luxembourg from where you are.