Luxembourg City History Museum, Luxemburg, Luxembourg

The Luxembourg City History Museum illustrates the thousand-year history of the City of Luxembourg with both permanent and temporary exhibits.

Like the city itself, the museum successfully combines ancient architecture with modern extensions. It is housed in four restored houses from the 17th to the 19th century which still bear archeological traces from the Middle Ages. Examples of how to combine old buildings with the expectations of museum visitors are the floating glass façade and the panoramic lift which offers extensive views of all floors. The huge glass cage of the lift gives up to 65 people views of the rock foundations on the lower levels as well as views of the city's Grund district and Rham plateau on the upper levels, revealing the stages of Luxembourg's history over the centuries. Also of interest are the ancient, vaulted cellars which were discovered during excavation work in the early 1990s.

The floors below the street level entrance house a permanent collection illustrating the town's architectural and urban development while the upper floors are reserved for temporary exhibitions. A multimedia system extending throughout the building documents the history of the town including its cultural, political and social development. It provides access to some ten thousand documents and almost sixty audio-visual sequences.

References:

Wikipedia

Museums in Luxembourg

User Reviews

kalse7en (7 months ago)
Very informative and well put together. There's also a great view from the terrace, cannot be missed!

Pukar Bhattarai (7 months ago)
Very modern built yet old school at the same time with interactive artifacts and occasional recreational activities made it a very worthwhile visit. The ticket is free for students under 26 and also provides access to another museum in the vicinity.

Lance Ying (7 months ago)
The museum tells a good story of Luxembourg starting from the Roman time when it’s just a small settlement through different periods of European history. They offer a free English tour, which is informative and interesting.

Maryam Azadeh (8 months ago)
Recommend to visit. You need around 3 hours to fully understand the history of luxembourg. Two floors are also dedicated to other exhibitions.

Graeme Mitchell (14 months ago)
Bit of a maze but worth doing. I'd recommend doing a walking tour first. So you can understand the history better.

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Les Invalides

Les Invalides is a complex of buildings containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building"s original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l"Armée, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, and the Musée d"Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the burial site for some of France"s war heroes, notably Napoleon Bonaparte.

Louis XIV initiated the project in 1670, as a home and hospital for aged and unwell soldiers: the name is a shortened form of hôpital des invalides. The architect of Les Invalides was Libéral Bruant. The enlarged project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 196 metres and the complex had fifteen courtyards. Jules Hardouin Mansart assisted the aged Bruant, and the chapel was finished in 1679 to Bruant"s designs after the elder architect"s death.

Shortly after the veterans" chapel was completed, Louis XIV commissioned Mansart to construct a separate private royal chapel referred to as the Église du Dôme from its most striking feature. Inspired by St. Peter"s Basilica in Rome, the original for all Baroque domes, it is one of the triumphs of French Baroque architecture. The domed chapel is centrally placed to dominate the court of honour. It was finished in 1708.

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The building retained its primary function of a retirement home and hospital for military veterans until the early twentieth century. In 1872 the musée d"artillerie (Artillery Museum) was located within the building to be joined by the Historical Museum of the Armies in 1896. The two institutions were merged to form the present musée de l"armée in 1905. At the same time the veterans in residence were dispersed to smaller centres outside Paris. The reason was that the adoption of a mainly conscript army, after 1872, meant a substantial reduction in the numbers of veterans having the twenty or more years of military service formerly required to enter the Hôpital des Invalides. The building accordingly became too large for its original purpose. The modern complex does however still include the facilities detailed below for about a hundred elderly or incapacitated former soldiers.

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