Notre-Dame Cathedral

Reaching the eastern edge of the Bock doesn’t mean that Ville Haute’s treasures are over. Back to the starting point of the Grand Duke’s Palace if you head towards Place Clairefontaine it’s very easy to spot the towers of the Notre-Dame Cathedral. The Roman Catholic Cathedral of Luxembourg city had its founding stone laid on May 1613 by the Jesuits who constructed the church to serve as both their parish and their college.

The semi-Gothic, semi-Renaissance church was consecrated and dedicated to the Immaculate Conception on October 1621. The majority of young Luxembourgers got their education in the Jesuit college until 1773 when the Jesuits left the city and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria gifted the church to the city. In 1778 it became a new parish church under the name Saint Nicolas et Sainte Thérèse until 1848 when it finally took the name, Notre Dame. 

In 1854 the Baroque interior was refurbished in a neo-Gothic style and in 1870 it was elevated to a bishopric by Pope Pius IX when it officially became Notre-Dame Cathedral. The choir screen is richly decorated with sculpted alabaster columns, stained glass from the 19th and 20th centuries, neo-Gothic confessionals, modern sculptures in bas relief, and bronze gates by Auguste Trémont, all very deserving for this splendid sanctuary. The crypt is the resting place of John the Blind, King of Bohemia & titular king of Poland as well as several other members of the Grand Ducal family.