Esch-sur-Alzette


Esch-sur-Alzette is a commune with town status in south-western Luxembourg. It is the country's second "city", and its second-most populous commune, with a population of 35,040 inhabitants, as of 2018. It lies in the south-west of the country, on the border with France and in the valley of the Alzette, which flows through the town. The town is usually referred to as just Esch; however, the full name distinguishes it from the village and commune of Esch-sur-Sûre which lies further north. The country's capital, Luxembourg City, is roughly to the north-east.

History

For a long time Esch was a small farming village in the valley of the Uelzecht river. This changed when important amounts of iron ore were found in the area in the 1850s. With the development of the mines and the steel industry the town's population multiplied tenfold in a couple of decades. In 1911 the steel- and iron-producing company ARBED was founded. The development of the steel industry, especially in the south of the country, provided Luxembourg with sustained economic growth during the second half of the 19th century.
In the 1970s, as a result of the steel crisis, the mines and many of the blast furnaces were shut down, the last one, in Esch-Belval, definitely halting its operations in 1997. The blast furnaces were replaced by an electric furnace that is fed with scrap metal rather than iron ore.
Today the industrial wastelands on Belval left behind by the steel industry, are being redeveloped and converted into a new, modern town quarter. New cultural buildings such as the cinema Kinepolis Belval and the Rockhal, Luxembourg's biggest concert hall, schools, flats and Belval Plaza, a shopping centre, have been built in the last years.
The area around the old blast furnaces will host different structures of the University of Luxembourg, many research centres and the national archives. Two of the University's three faculties relocated there: The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education Sciences already moved in the summer of 2016, and the Faculty of Sciences, Technology and Communication in fall 2017.

Places of interest

Esch-sur-Alzette is home to the National Museum of the Resistance, which has material related to the resistance to German occupation during the Second World War. Lucien Wercollier's sculpture The Political Prisoner is in its entrance hall. Other tourist attractions include the large park, and the Berwart Tower, built in 1621.
The Lankelz miniature railway operates on Sunday afternoons and public holidays from May to mid-October.
Esch is home to the Conservatoire de Musique. Founded as a school of music in 1926, it achieved Conservatoire status in 1969.
There are two cinemas in the centre of the town, one called the 'Ariston', the 'Kinosch' and a third one called 'Utopolis Belval' is situated in the former industrial wastelands Belval. The main theatre is the Théâtre d’Esch. There is also the Kulturfabrik, a cultural centre in a reconverted abattoir which hosts performances of various kinds. The town is the site of one of the six regional headquarters of the Grand Ducal Police.
The town has the longest shopping street in Luxembourg.
One of the largest employers in the town is ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel producer, which formed from the merger of Aceralia, ARBED, Mittal, and Usinor.

Government and politics

Local

Esch is governed by its communal council, consisting of 19 councillors. Elections take place to this body every 6 years, under a system of proportional representation. Currently the mayor is Vera Spautz, of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party. The governing majority on the council consists of the LSAP and The Greens. The council that is currently in office reflects the 2011 local election results. Its mandate will run out in January 2018.
'G' denotes parties that went on to form the governing majority.
; 2017 elections
The most recent elections were held on 8 October 2017; the results are listed below. This new council will take office in January 2018.
After the elections, a coalition agreement was signed between 3 parties, the CSV, the Greens, and the DP, who will form the new governing majority on the council. The designated new mayor is Tom Schlesser of Dei Lénk.

National

For national elections to the Chamber of Deputies, Esch is located in the Sud constituency.

Sport

Esch is in the heart of the traditional footballing heartland of the south of the country, and the town was the first place in the country to embrace the game. The first two football clubs in the country, CS Fola Esch and Jeunesse Esch, both come from the town. Jeunesse have been the most successful Luxembourgian club, winning an unrivalled twenty-eight National Division titles; combined with thirteen Luxembourg Cup victories, Jeunesse have won eight Doubles. They play at Stade de la Frontière, in the south of the town. Fola were very important in the early history of the sport in Luxembourg, winning five titles up to 1930. Fola's home stadium is Stade Émile Mayrisch, in the south-east of Esch, which it shares with its sister athletics club CA Fola Esch. In 2017 US Esch joined Jeunesse and CS Fola in the top flight after winning the second division Promotion d'Honneur.
At the 2006 Tour de France, Esch-sur-Alzette hosted the end of Stage 2 and the start of Stage 3. The Tour also passed through the town in 2017.

Transport

Esch-sur-Alzette is the southern terminus of the A4 motorway, which runs northwards to Luxembourg. The east-west A13 meets the A4 just to the north of Esch, and terminates at Pétange in the west and meets the German Bundesautobahn 8 at its eastern end.
Esch is one of four towns in the Grand Duchy to have more than one railway station. Esch's three railway stations, Esch-sur-Alzette, Belval-Rédange, and Belval-Université, all lie on Line 60 of the Chemins de fer luxembourgeois network.
Esch is connected by the bus lines 1,2,3,4,5,7,12,13,15 and 17 of the communal public transport company T.I.C.E, which maintenance depot and headquarter is situated in Esch, and by lines 307, 312, 313 and 314 of the R.G.T.R.

Notable people

; Sport
; Politics
Esch-sur-Alzette is twinned with: