Luxembourg City's Religious Heritage

The Notre-Dame Cathedral was founded in the 17th century by the Jesuits. with the disappearance of the company of Jesus in 1773, the church became a parish. It was not until 1870 and the creation of the diocese of Luxembourg that the church became a cathedral. The church owes its present size and Gothic Revival style to a 20th-century extension by the architect Hubert Schumacher. The crypt of the church contains the tombs of the grand-ducal family.

Saint-Jean-du-Grund is a church from the very beginning of the 18th century, which once belonged to the Benedictine Abbey of Münster. The interior contains a baroque choir, a beautiful 18th-century organ and, in one of the chapels, a black Madonna and Child, carved around 1360, which is the object of great veneration.

The church of Saint-Michael was founded in 987 as the chapel of the castle of the Count of Luxembourg. Destroyed and rebuilt many times, the appearance of the present church owes much to its reconstruction in the 17th century, including the construction of the present tower (1648). The church has a beautiful listed organ dating from 1609.

The Great Synagogue of Luxembourg was first built in 1823, but in 1891, the synagogue gave way to the Congregation of Notre-Dame. In 1894, a new Moorish-style synagogue was built according to the plans of the architects Ludwig Levy and Charles Arendt. In May 1941, it was desecrated by the Gestapo and gradually demolished until 1943, as it became difficult to find a company willing to undertake its restoration. The present synagogue, whose plans were drawn up by architects Victor Engels and René Mailliet, was built between 1951 and 1953.

The Church of the Trinity is located where a chapel was built in 1313. During the siege of the city by the troops of Louis XIV in 1684, the church and the 17th-century monastery surrounding it were destroyed. From 1737 to 1745, a new church was built on the exact same spot and was the first large Baroque building in the town. Affected by the French Revolution, the church was transformed into a food warehouse and as a theatre. Since 1817, it has been used for Protestant services.

The Saint-Quirin chapel, founded in the 14th century, is a chapel dedicated to Quirin de Neuss. Of the current building, only the Gothic façade is original, dated 1355. The roof and bell tower were added in the 19th century. The water from the spring near the chapel is reputed to have healing properties.

The small Russian Orthodox Church of Saints Peter and Paul was built from 1979 to 1982. It is the first Russian Orthodox church in the country, but it is open to all Orthodox Christians, including Russians, Ethiopians, Serbians, Bulgarians, etc.