Steinfort, from ironworks to nature reserve

Steinfort’s iron past is almost invisible now. A hundred years ago the Al Schmelz works drove the local economy, with blast furnaces, sheds and a railway bringing in the ore. It shut in the 1930s, when other plants began turning out cheaper iron, and only the office building still stands. What has grown up around it instead is a nature reserve, and that’s the reason I’d come.

Four villages, one station

STATEC counted 6,154 residents on 1 January 2026, spread across Steinfort, Kleinbettingen, Hagen and Grass. Kleinbettingen has a station on the line from Luxembourg City to Arlon in Belgium, which makes it the rail gateway to this corner of the country. The government portal also mentions it for its cereal fields and as a place to try local beer and food.

The Mirador and the Schwaarzenhaff reserve

The Mirador visitor centre sits in the building that once carried the blast furnace’s loading crane. Today it’s the entrance to the protected Schwaarzenhaff area, with information on its plants, wildlife and local heritage, and it also houses the district forester’s office. In late September 2026 it opened on weekdays only, from 8am to noon and again from 1pm to 5pm, according to visitluxembourg.

For families, visitluxembourg has a story about two siblings who travel back to the working ironworks, plus a puzzle you solve with the free Actionbound app as you walk the reserve. It strikes me as a smart way to show a child what a blast furnace was without dragging them round a museum. For more ideas, see Luxembourg with kids.

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Art in the open air

Steinfort has put its money on outdoor art. Since 2008 the commune and the Aktikulti association have run a sculpture competition every two years, and each winning piece is installed in one of the four villages, so they now form a trail, the Skulpturewee. The seventh edition, in 2026, went to Berlin-based Markus Hoffmann for Transformation, a piece inspired by iron-ore mining that is going up at the Op der Berk viewpoint.

In the centre, around the lake in the park, the Billerwee shows local residents’ work on stands made from recycled pallets, changing four to six times a year. And the Villa Collart houses the CollART gallery, with four exhibitions a year, each running over three weekends.

Treetops, a pool and a Michelin star

Steinfort Adventure is a treetop park with ten courses, two of them, Tiger and Monkey, suitable from age four. It’s on rue du Schwarzenhof, and visitluxembourg stresses that it bills itself as eco-tourism, with woodland walks and picnics as well as the courses. In the week of 3 October 2026 it opened Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 6pm, and charged €21 from age 16, €18 for ages 10 to 15, €15 for ages 7 to 9 and nothing for children aged 4 to 6. The LuxembourgPass takes 30% off. With children in that age range, this is the outing I’d build the trip around. I compare it with the rest in adventure parks in Luxembourg.

The swimming pool has a 25 by 10 m main pool, a non-swimmers’ area, a sauna and a steam room, and doesn’t publish hours in the sources I’ve read, so check its website before you go.

For a treat, Apdikt holds a Michelin star for creative cooking and a surprise menu in a former apothecary. I place it among the country’s other stars in Michelin star restaurants in Luxembourg.

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Festivals

The commune organises the Summerdream festival with the Kultur Stengefort association, a free event of performing arts, music, literature and workshops themed on a midsummer night’s dream. The sixth edition will be in August 2027 at the Mirador centre; the exact date hasn’t been announced.

Is it worth the trip?

It depends who you’re with. With children between about four and twelve, Steinfort fills a whole day between the treetop park, the pool and the ironworks trail, all without a car. As a couple with an interest in food, Apdikt’s star justifies the journey on its own. If it’s castles or picture-postcard villages you’re after, head for the Eisch valley instead, in the same region. And I wouldn’t come purely for the reserve at a weekend, because the Mirador centre’s published hours for late September 2026 left out Saturday and Sunday.

For British visitors used to paying rail fares, it’s worth underlining that the whole trip out from Luxembourg City, train, bus and all, costs nothing as long as you stay on the Luxembourg side of the border.

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

Fitting it in

I’d take the free train to Kleinbettingen and walk across the fields towards Garnich, as Visit Guttland suggests. If you carry on into Belgium, the cross-border stretch has to be paid for, and Arlon itself is covered in Arlon day trip. With only two hotels in the commune in 2025, per STATEC, my base would be the capital.

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