Gasperich

Like many other Luxembourg City districts, Gasperich was for a long time a rural area. In Roman times, the area was dotted with “villas”, or farmsteads. Two thousand years ago, Gasperich lay close to two major Roman roads, one of which was the Roman trade route, known for centuries as the Stengesche Wee. It connected the old settlement on the Dalheim plateau with the Roman road to Arlon and Trier.

The name “Gasperich” first appeared in the Altmünster Abbey Charter in 1083. The then-Benedictine abbey was granted land in Gasperich on the “Mons Cuconis”. We have the tax registers from the Middle Ages to thank for the area’s first population figures. In 1528, there were just three “hearths”, or farmsteads, recorded here. When Luxembourg’s first census was taken in 1806, there were only 18 houses in Gasperich, and 98 inhabitants.

Walking around the district which is now home to 10,000 inhabitants, the two public parks and the fields around the elegantly designed Cloche d’Or water tower are the main reminders of Gasperich’s rural past. Ban de Gasperich Park – the capital’s largest public park – stands out for its biodiversity and excellent leisure and recreational facilities.

Directly next to the English Garden, on Rue de la Déportation, stands a memorial commemorating the fate of all those forcibly recruited and displaced Luxembourgers transported from Hollerich railway station to Germany and the Eastern Front in 1942. The Deportation Memorial is also a museum, established in 1996 to commemorate the tragic ordeal of the approximately 11,200 Luxembourgers deported.