Vianden Castle
Restored hilltop castle above the Our valley, with Romanesque and Gothic halls and a decagonal chapel.
Vianden Castle stands on a rocky spur above the river Our, on the site of a Roman fort and a Carolingian refuge. The stone castle was raised between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries by the counts of Vianden, who held one of the more powerful lordships between the Rhine and the Meuse. Its Romanesque core includes a decagonal chapel built over two storeys, while the Gothic additions brought the Great Palace and the Knights' Hall. The Juvigny wing was added in the seventeenth century.
The castle decayed after 1820, when it was sold off and stripped for building material, a loss lamented by Victor Hugo during his stays in the town. It passed to the Grand Ducal family and was ceded to the state in 1977, after which a long programme of restoration returned the roofs, halls and chapel. It opened to visitors as a museum showing armour, furniture, tapestries and archaeological finds, and a scale model of the ruined castle records its condition before the works.
Highlights
- Two-storey decagonal Romanesque chapel
- Gothic Great Palace and Knights' Hall
- Seat of the counts of Vianden from the 11th century
- Restored by the Luxembourg state after 1977
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