Neumünster Abbey, Luxemburg, Luxembourg

After the original Benedictine Abbey on the Altmünster Plateau had been destroyed in 1542, the monks built a new abbey or Neumünster in 1606 in the Grund. This in turn was destroyed by fire in 1684 but was rebuilt on the same site in 1688 and extended in 1720. After the French revolution, it served as a police station and prison before becoming a barracks for the Prussians after Napoleon's defeat in 1815. From 1867, it once again became a state prison. During World War II, the Nazis used the Abbey to imprison political resisters to their occupation of Luxembourg. Among the most notable of those political prisoners was Luxembourg's best-known sculptor Lucien Wercollier.

Today Neumünster Abbey is a public meeting place and cultural centre. Since 1997, it has been the home of the European Institute of Cultural Routes.

References:

Wikipedia

Religious sites in Luxembourg

User Reviews

Levente Berky (16 months ago)
Nice place to see while staying here. Also the interior of the side building is a nice theater. Enjoyed the concert here.

Garry (2 years ago)
Very beautiful abbey located just below the Wenzel Wall. The abbey is overlooked by the Bock Promontory and can be seen in great detail from the top of the wall. Getting down to the abbey is a breeze following the Wenzel walk under the Grund gate and down into the Vale itself. Pass the red sandstone bridge and cross over the stone bridge pictured in the images.

Melanie Guttermann (2 years ago)
Different events throughout the whole year. Great location near the city center. Good for walking and visiting. Christian Church and natural museum especially for kids nearby

Jessie Hands (2 years ago)
Stunning! Greatly accessible too! Which was a pleasant surprise. Add it to the list of places to see in this city, you won’t be disappointed!

MissSJ (2 years ago)
With a rich history and several revolutions, the Neumünster Abbey was once a police station and prison to imprison political resisters during the Luxembourg occupation. In May 2004, the abbey opened to the public as a meeting place and a cultural centre hosting concerts, exhibitions, and seminars. A beautiful surrounding overlooking from the top.

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Polybert49

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Cochem Castle

The original Cochem Castle, perched prominently on a hill above the Moselle River, served to collect tolls from passing ships. Modern research dates its origins to around 1100. Before its destruction by the French in 1689, the castle had a long and fascinating history. It changed hands numerous times and, like most castles, also changed its form over the centuries.

In 1151 King Konrad III ended a dispute over who should inherit Cochem Castle by laying siege to it and taking possession of it himself. That same year it became an official Imperial Castle (Reichsburg) subject to imperial authority. In 1282 it was Habsburg King Rudolf’s turn, when he conquered the Reichsburg Cochem and took it over. But just 12 years later, in 1294, the newest owner, King Adolf of Nassau pawned the castle, the town of Cochem and the surrounding region in order to finance his coronation. Adolf’s successor, Albrecht I, was unable to redeem the pledge and was forced to grant the castle to the archbishop in nearby Trier and the Electorate of Trier, which then administered the Reichsburg continuously, except for a brief interruption when Trier’s Archbishop Balduin of Luxembourg had to pawn the castle to a countess. But he got it back a year later.

The Electorate of Trier and its nobility became wealthy and powerful in large part due to the income from Cochem Castle and the rights to shipping tolls on the Moselle. Not until 1419 did the castle and its tolls come under the administration of civil bailiffs (Amtsmänner). While under the control of the bishops and electors in Trier from the 14th to the 16th century, the castle was expanded several times.

In 1688 the French invaded the Rhine and Moselle regions of the Palatinate, which included Cochem and its castle. French troops conquered the Reichsburg and then laid waste not only to the castle but also to Cochem and most of the other surrounding towns in a scorched-earth campaign. Between that time and the Congress of Vienna, the Palatinate and Cochem went back and forth between France and Prussia. In 1815 the western Palatinate and Cochem finally became part of Prussia once and for all.

Louis Jacques Ravené (1823-1879) did not live to see the completion of his renovated castle, but it was completed by his son Louis Auguste Ravené (1866-1944). Louis Auguste was only two years old when construction work at the old ruins above Cochem began in 1868, but most of the new castle took shape from 1874 to 1877, based on designs by Berlin architects. After the death of his father in 1879, Louis Auguste supervised the final stages of construction, mostly involving work on the castle’s interior. The castle was finally completed in 1890. Louis Auguste, like his father, a lover of art, filled the castle with an extensive art collection, most of which was lost during the Second World War.

In 1942, during the Nazi years, Ravené was forced to sell the family castle to the Prussian Ministry of Justice, which turned it into a law school run by the Nazi government. Following the end of the war, the castle became the property of the new state of Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate). In 1978 the city of Cochem bought the castle for 664,000 marks.

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