Esch-sur-Alzette, Avenue du Rock'n'Roll

The Minett Trail is a 90-kilometer-long hiking route that runs across the Minett region. In ten stages, you can experience smaller and larger towns as well as eight nature reserves. These impress with old forests and former open-pit mining areas. With steep rock faces, red soil, and mine entrances, they are unique in Luxembourg. This section, with an alternative starting point, is wheelchair accessible. You hike between the new Belval district, which has rapidly developed for almost ten years, and the town of Esch-sur-Alzette. There is much to discover along this route: the former industrial wasteland has been made habitable and buildable again with great efforts; since then, the district, officially part of Esch-sur-Alzette, has been filled with new life. Whether cultural center (with the "Rockhal"), research or studies and sciences (Belval is also the location of the very young University of Luxembourg), or recreation, the site is a prime example of successful revitalization.

This summer, you can get a preview of what future mobility between the Unicampus in Belval and Luxembourg City might look like: Not by car, but by two wheels and pedals, the VéloExpress Belval-Luxembourg takes you 27 kilometers to your destination. It starts at the station in Belval and ends at the Glacis parking lot in the capital. Experience the contrast between the modern science city where you start and the nature reserves along the route, which lead you through former open-pit mining areas where nature is reclaiming its space.

This special exhibition space takes its name from the heaps of black matter (masse noire in French), which was the compound used to close the tap holes of the blast furnaces that produced industrial metals during the 20th century. Now that the building is no longer the site of industry, Massenoire is used for events related to the industrial heritage of Esch.

The Möllerei once served as an ore storage facility and housed the fuels and minerals needed to continuously supply the blast furnaces, where metals were processed into steel. The silos, rails, and conveyor belts of its interior architecture have been preserved, bearing witness to its industrial past. Today, thanks to the vision of Esch-sur-Alzette 2022, the European Capital of Culture, and the Fonds Belval, the Möllerei is accessible to visitors who can admire its majestic architecture. The tour of the blast furnace now also begins from this building. The Möllerei is open daily (except Tuesdays) from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM (4:00 PM in winter), and admission is free.