Explore Vianden

Why visit Vianden

Vianden is the most photogenic small town in Luxembourg — a tiny medieval village of just 1,800 residents on the Our river in the Ardennes north of the country, dominated by the spectacular, fully restored Vianden Castle that rises 310 metres above the rooftops on a wooded hilltop. The castle is one of the largest feudal residences in the former Holy Roman Empire west of the Rhine; built between the 11th and 14th centuries on the foundations of a Roman fort, it was the seat of the Counts of Vianden, ancestors of the current Dutch and Luxembourg royal houses. The exhaustive 30-year restoration completed in the 1980s returned it to its medieval glory, complete with banquet hall, knights' hall, and dramatic ramparts — the cellar dungeon and weaponry collection are highlights. The town below is full of half-timbered houses on the narrow Grand-Rue; Victor Hugo lived briefly here during his French exile in 1871 and the riverside Maison Victor Hugo is a charming museum to the period. Ride the chairlift up to the panoramic Mont St Nicolas plateau (440m, the best view of the castle), and don't miss the surprising hike to the nearby SEO pumped-storage power station inside the mountain — one of Europe's largest, with guided tours of the cavernous turbine halls.