The unique and one of the most popular tourist attractions of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg are the Bock and Petruss casemates, which are corridors hollowed out in a rocky ledge with a length of 17 kilometers.
Man-made tunnels are all that remains of once one of the most formidable fortresses of medieval Europe, which gave rise to the city of Luxembourg.
According to legend, its founder, Count Siegfried, fell in love with the beautiful mermaid Melusine when he once saw her in the form of a beautiful maiden in the valley of the Alzette River.
The girl reciprocated the count. On the day of the wedding Melyuzina asked her husband to give his word not to enter her chambers one of the nights of the week.
However, overcome by irresistible curiosity, the count broke his promise. Spying on his wife in the bathroom through the keyhole, he saw her fishtail. Hearing her husband's heart-rending scream, Melusina screamed and disappeared into the parted rock.
Tourists are still shown a 45-meter-deep well where an angry mermaid jumped off. The guides tell us that Melusine lives there to this day, being the defender of Luxembourg.
A bit of history
In 963 AD, on a rocky ledge called Bock Count Siegfried laid the fortress, which later became the city of Luxembourg, which today has a little more than 124,000 inhabitants.
Only mentions of the citadel remain today, but the fact that a small town in the heart of Western Europe was an impregnable fortress that controlled land routes through the center of the continent is reminiscent of casemates, which continue to attract fans of the attributes of the Middle Ages.
Hollowed deep into the rock in 1644, during the Spanish rule, the catacombs were modernized in the XVIII century by the Austrians, who created a network of connecting tunnels with a total length of 23 km.
The multi-tiered galleries with different-sized chambers and exits to the rocky slopes at a hundred-meter height could accommodate thousands of defenders of the fortress with horses and artillery, as well as weapons and food depots. Due to the inaccessibility of the casemates, Luxembourg managed to hold the siege for eight months during the war with the French for independence, and for this reason the city became known as "Northern Gibraltar".
At the same time, the defenders had to eat a number of horses when food supplies ran out. "Imagine how damp, cold and stuffy it was here. There was no hygiene and there was not enough oxygen, and when rifles were fired, the air was filled with smoke and gunpowder. People died here not from an enemy bullet, but rather from diseases," says Jean, the guide, painting the scenes that took place here in those distant times.
In 1867, part of the casemates was destroyed, saving 17 kilometers of tunnels. Since 1933, they have been open to the public, and during the Second World War they became a refuge for 35,000 residents of Luxembourg. In 1994, the complex was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and opened to tourists.
The biggest in the world
Luxembourg's casemates are called the largest in the world. The catacombs at different levels go deeper into the rocky ledge by more than 40 m, representing a multi-kilometer tunnel system that runs underground through the entire Old Town of Luxembourg and extends to the Kirchberg plateau, towering over the northeastern part of the historic center of Ville Haute.
Entrances to rock labyrinths still exist in the basements of old houses in Luxembourg. However, only two of their sections are open to the public: the Bock and Petruss casemates. The Bock casemates can be viewed independently, while the Petruss casemates require the presence of a guide. They are closed most of the year and are only open to organized groups of tourists on Easter, Whitsunday and during the school summer holidays.
The entrance to the Bock casemates is available daily from 10:45 to 15:00. The cost of admission is 10 euros for adult tourists, 8 euros for students and 5 euros for the elderly. And for children aged 4-12, admission is free.
It is not known for certain where the word "casemate" came from. Probably from the Greek "chasma(ta)", which means a crevice or rift.
