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Since the year 963, when Count Siegfried acquired the rocky promontory overhanging the valley of the River Alzette which since the end of the Middle Ages has been called "The Bock", it has without doubt set strategic criteria. The location gave itself admirably to fortification. The Count had a fortress built there, around which there took shape little by little a built-up area which only came to merit being called a city some two centuries later. It was towards the middle of the 12th. Century that it became surrounded by substantial ramparts (to the extent of the Rue du Fossé today).    
Demographic pressures led in the 14th. Century to an extension of the city towards the West, with the construction of new ramparts (to the extent of the Boulevard Royal today). The urban area went from 5 to 23 hectares (that is to say 12.5 to 57.5 acres). But it would be necessary to wait until the last third of the 19th. Century to see the city finally pass beyond this "barrier" of remparts created in the 14th. Century.
Just like so many cities in the Middle Ages, Luxembourg also became fortified. In this case on three sides - to the South, to the East, and to the North-east - it was surrounded by the deep valleys of the River Petrusse and the River Alzette. Augmented by the appropriate works, these heights were utterly invincible. On the side opening out to the plain, to the West and North-west, mighty ramparts were a barrier to access.

The city did not succumb as a rule to siege prior to 1443, the date when Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, seized it by surprise. A new era was beginning for Luxembourg, which had been elevated to the status of Duchy in 1354. It was integrated into the territory of the Netherlands and drawn with them into the duel which the Valois-Bourbons and the Habsburgs indulged in during the 16th., 17th., and 18th. Centuries.