Luxembourg,
Literally meaning the light in the city or light castle,
is a country that could be described as both stranger than fiction, and yet deeply mysterious.
I was born and raised on that 2,586 square kilometers land, a country famous for a lot of things, that don’t reflect the reality of its ambiance and culture on a cellular local level.
Luxembourg is a country, or more accurately, the only Grand-Duchy in the entire world, and has a history steeped in mystery and myth.
The foundation myth of Luxembourg already has a mystical take on architecture; namely the castle had been built by the devil to help Sigfroy dazzle his nymph-crush and offer her a matrimonial home.
That nymph is called Melusina, and is considered the True Mother of our Country, but her memory is fading with the dwindling native luxembourgish culture.
I'll keep the story for a next post, suffice to say for now, that in light of its symbology, the ancient vestiges and landmarks in Luxembourg take an entire different dimension.
Since I grew up there in the 90s, much of the architectural landscape has changed, and continues to do so at a rapid rate.
Majestic buildings and squares that we took for granted as children and teenagers have completely vanished from the horizon, and the modern cheap-and-quick monster is devouring the city at every corner.
It’s when I came back last April, that I felt a real shift in my relation to this country.
Let me back up a little first..
Having grown up in one of the smallest countries in the Atlas, I always felt quite isolated geographically and culturally from the rest of the world. With the rise of internet and the birthdays of social media, our population was somehow so cut off from contemporary media and culture;
we speak a unique language, we are neither french nor german but fluently speak both, and we have a somewhat confused national identity.
We grew up with TV, music and trends of the major Megacountries like the USA, France and Germany, but there was not much locally that we could inspire ourselves from.
Growing up here felt like living in a void where all the amazing things were outside.
That was the underlying ambiance that pushed me to leave the country as soon as I attained majority. First I studied in Paris, then traveled to Tokyo, the US and lived in Dubai for two years.
Although I came back to Lux (the abbreviation we appropriate ourselves for our homecountry) for a few years, I perpetually longed to leave it again and always imagined myself spending my adult life abroad.
Life had other plans for me though; on a failed attempt to relocate to Algeria, the land of my father’s ancestors, the plandemic blocked me in Luxembourg for 3 years. A quick change of scenery in Croatia for less than a year and Italy for a couple of months inbetween, after which I embarked on a dramatic landing back here in Luxembourg.
The Architectural Awakening
In light of the recent discoveries and uncoveries of many intrigues about our History, humans around the world have started to seriously question the narratives about our societies and cultures. Especially the question that began to haunt those communities the most was: Who built all these buildings that we can find in every major city across the globe? And that question led to daring to contemplate the possibilities about their structures and engineering purposes.
There are countless private researchers on that subject matter, and myself having gotten deeply curious and inspired, I am starting to properly look into what this all represents in my own environment.
I recalled all the places I visited across the continents, and had to admit myself that they awkwardly looked too similar to be from different timelines and civilizations.
With that new perspective, last spring when I was back in my homeland,
I decided to explore my country with fresh eyes and a fresh heart.
Everything felt so different, and sadly, there are days where I don't recognize the place where I grew up.
And yet, the magic of these buildings prevailed; I began to appreciate the marvels of stone that were still standing tall over the small capital and around.
I began to smell the richness of a history untold, safeguarded in those ancient structures, silently witnessing the modern bustle of a recently converted metropolitan city.
So this is how I started a quest in the energetics of buildings, drawing inspiration from the ancient buildings and the mysteries of their buried technologies.
Luxembourg is full of ancient architecture, and the charm of this little European country is mirrored in the old alleys and surviving big avenues, that boast the same vibes as cities like Paris and Brussels.
And ironically, even having grown up close to the capital, it is only in the summer that I discovered this quote from the Great Johann Wolfgang Goethe, whom I fondly resonate with when I read the words with which he described my homeland centuries back.
Hier findet sich soviel Größe
mit Anmut, soviel Ernst mit
Lieblichkeit verbunden, dass
wohl zu wünschen wäre, (Nicolas) Poussin
hätte sein herrliches Talent
in solchen Räumen betätigt.
15.Oktober 1792
English Translation:
ℌ𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔢 𝔦𝔰 𝔰𝔬 𝔪𝔲𝔠𝔥 𝔤𝔯𝔞𝔫𝔡𝔢𝔲𝔯
𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔤𝔯𝔞𝔠𝔢, 𝔰𝔬 𝔪𝔲𝔠𝔥 𝔰𝔢𝔯𝔦𝔬𝔲𝔰𝔫𝔢𝔰𝔰 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥
𝔩𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩𝔦𝔫𝔢𝔰𝔰 𝔠𝔬𝔪𝔟𝔦𝔫𝔢𝔡, 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱
𝔬𝔫𝔢 𝔠𝔬𝔲𝔩𝔡 𝔴𝔦𝔰𝔥 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱 (𝔑𝔦𝔠𝔬𝔩𝔞𝔰) 𝔓𝔬𝔲𝔰𝔰𝔦𝔫
𝔥𝔞𝔡 𝔲𝔰𝔢𝔡 𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔴𝔬𝔫𝔡𝔢𝔯𝔣𝔲𝔩 𝔱𝔞𝔩𝔢𝔫𝔱
𝔦𝔫 𝔰𝔲𝔠𝔥 𝔰𝔭𝔞𝔠𝔢𝔰.
October 15, 1792
Can you spot the dragon? If you read until here, you might get a feel of why I said mysterious... I just found it last summer on a building I passed almost daily whenever I was out and about.. Architecture is a symphony filled with potent clues and esoteric messages, hidden in plain sight!
Thanks for reading,
How do you look at your hometown? Do you live somewhere different to where you were born? Can you spot similarities between those pictures and your own city?
and oh yes this is my new account, since I lost the keys to my old profile , so the dividers are mine :)
𝐊𝐀𝐋𝐈 𝐏𝐇𝐀𝐄 𝐑𝐀