- Echternach
Infobox Luxembourg commune
name = Echternach
luxname = Iechternach
arms = Coat of arms echternach luxbrg.png
canton = Echternach
district = GrevenmacherEchternach ( _lb. Iechternach) is a commune with city status in the canton of Echternach, which is part of the district of Grevenmacher, in eastern
Luxembourg . Echternach lies near the border withGermany , and is the oldest town (current population 4,610) in Luxembourg.It grew around the walls of the
Abbey of Echternach , which was founded in 698 by St. Willibrord, an English monk of Ripon, who became the first bishop of Utrecht and worked to Christianize theFrisia ns. As bishop, he directed the monastery as abbot until his death in 739. It is in his honour that the dancing procession takes place annually onWhit Tuesday .The River
Sauer that flows past the town now forms the border between Luxembourg and Germany, but in the later Roman Empire and under the Merovingians this was not a marcher land at all. The Roman villa at Echternach (traces of it were rediscovered in 1975) which was part of thesee of Trier (now in Germany) was presented toWillibrord by Irmina (Irmine), daughter ofDagobert II , king of the Franks. Other parts of the Merovingian's Roman inheritance were presented to the Abbey by Pepin.Echternach continued to have royal patronage from the house of
Charlemagne . Though the monks were displaced by secular canons of thebishop of Trier , 859 - 971, and though Willibrord's buildings burned down in 1017, the Romanesquebasilica with symmetrical towers ("illustration, above right") still houses his tomb in its crypt. As the abbey, with a famous library and scriptorium flourished, the town of Echternach formed around the abbey's outer walls and was granted a city charter in 1236. The abbey was rebuilt in a handsomeBaroque range in 1737. The monks were dispersed in 1797, and the abbey's contents and its famous library were auctioned off. Some of the library's early manuscripts are at theBibliothèque Nationale ,Paris . A porcelain factory was established in the abbey, and the town declined, until the railroad brought tourists.There are two churches at Echternach. The larger is the Abbey's basilica of St Willibrord , now surrounded by the eighteenth-century abbey (now a school) in the town's historical and cultural centre. The other is the parish church of St Peter and Paul.
The picturesque town, still surrounded by its medieval walls with towers, was badly damaged in World War II and has been thoroughly restored; it has been the site of a May and June International Music Festival since 1975.
External links
* [http://www.echternach.lu Official Website of Echternach]
* [http://www.berdorf.lu Surroundings of Echternach]
* [http://www.hme.lu/ Harmonie Municipale Echternach]
* [http://www.radioaktiv.lu/ Local Radio Echternach 106,5 FM]
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