The Vauban circuit, Louis XIV's fortress on foot

The Wenzel walk tells you about the medieval wall. The Vauban circuit tells you about the fortress that turned Luxembourg into the Gibraltar of the North. It’s longer, hillier and passes places most visitors never set foot in, from the Pfaffenthal to the forts across the valley. This is how I’d walk it.

Who was Vauban and what did he do here?

Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707) was Louis XIV’s great military engineer. visitluxembourg says he was made commissioner of fortifications at just twenty-two and went on to build or enlarge more than 160 fortresses. He arrived in Luxembourg with the French army while the city was still Spanish, and after the conquest of 1684 he set about strengthening it.

During the siege he had spotted the weak points. The Pfaffenthal, largely unfortified, and the heights opposite. In 1685 he brought them into the fortress, reinforced the heights with two forts and closed off the valley with a wall between Fort Berlaimont, on the city side, and the new Grünewald forts. The circuit follows those works.

From the Bock to the Pfaffenthal

The start is the Bock promontory, where the Spanish Habsburgs completed a first fort in 1620 that was destroyed in 1684. The route takes the castle bridge past the Council of State building, continues behind the houses of the national museum of history and art and leaves the medieval town through the Three Towers gate. Then it drops down the Montée de Pfaffenthal into the river quarter, which visitluxembourg says, together with the Grund, is the oldest part of the city.

On rue Laurent Menager you pass the Pfaffenthal lift, which visitluxembourg dates to 2016 and which comes down from the upper town. It’s free, so it makes a handy shortcut if you’d rather start or finish the walk here.

In the Pfaffenthal comes the piece I like most. The Vauban towers, which replaced the medieval Eich and Bons Malades gates, are joined by a wall that crosses the Alzette like a narrow bridge, the «Béinchen». You walk along its parapet path to the far bank. In front of the Eich gate a ravelin has recently been rebuilt, and on the riverbank stands the chimney of an 1876 pumping station that sent water up to the old town. In the tourist season a film on the city’s history is shown inside the Bons Malades gate.

Why are the Vauban towers here at all? The tourist office’s answer is the best summary I know. During the French siege, Vauban saw that the barely fortified Pfaffenthal and the heights opposite were the fortress’s weak spots, so in 1685 he brought them inside the defences. He put two forts up top and threw a wall across the valley floor from Fort Berlaymont on the city side to the new Grünewald forts, and doors on the first floor of the towers opened on to its wall-walk. One tower now holds a small cinema with a free documentary on the Pfaffenthal, open from 10:00 to 18:00 according to the same listing.

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The Grünewald forts

From the Bons Malades gate you have two choices. A long modern staircase following the old wall, or a gentler, step-free path along rue Vauban and rue des Trois Glands. At the top is Fort Niedergrünewald, from 1684 and 1685, of which part of one bastion survives. Then you drop into the small valley called the «Hiel», where Vauban built the Grünewald gate, with three flour stores still almost intact.

A narrow woodland path climbs to Fort Thüngen, whose keep with three towers crowned by golden acorns gives the Dräi Eechelen museum its name. It costs €7 and closes on Mondays. From the museum, accompanied by its staff and during opening hours, you can walk through a 169 m gallery cut into the rock to Fort Obergrünewald, uncovered and partly rebuilt in 2009. Its edge has, to my mind, the best view of the whole route, with the upper town opposite and the Bock with its shattered gun ports.

Back via Clausen

The circuit leaves the heights and drops to Clausen, where the Mansfeld gate, older than 1600 and strengthened by Vauban in 1684 and 1685, closed the fortress to the north-east. You cross the Alzette, pass beneath the arches of the 1858 to 1861 viaduct and, past the youth hostel on rue du Fort Olizy, return to the foot of the Bock.

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Practical tips

visitluxembourg says no special kit is needed but warns about slippery ground, so I’d wear shoes with a decent grip, the sort you’d pack for a coastal path at home. Buses 9 and 14 stop at Pfaffenthal Um Bock and Clausen Plateau Altmünster, so you can split the route in two if you tire. And if it’s your first day in the capital, I’d start with the Wenzel walk and leave this one for the next. If you’d rather have someone tell you the story in person, look at the options for a free walking tour in Luxembourg. I give the background to both routes in my guide to Luxembourg fortress.

The whole circuit lies within or beside the area UNESCO listed in 1994, so every gate, tower and fort you pass is part of the same World Heritage Site as the upper town.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Luxembourg on GetYourGuide.

If you would rather go at your own pace, see the car hire deals in Luxembourg: the earlier you book, the more cars are left to choose from.

Before you fix your dates, compare tickets to Luxembourg: the same journey can cost very different amounts from one day to the next.