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• bg: Ехтернах

Echternach is situated at an altitude of 175 m on the right bank of the river Sauer (French: Sûre) which forms the border between Luxembourg and Germany. It is the county seat of the canton Echternach in the district Grevenmacher. It is one of the oldest towns in Luxembourg. Its current population is about 5,000.

The origins of Echternach go back to the times of the Romans who at this place had built a bridge across the river. The Roman villa outside Echternach dates from the 1st century AD and is one of the largest (1.5 ha) of its kind north of the Alps. The present town began to grow around the walls of the abbey of Echternach, which was founded iby St. Willibrord in 698 AD. Echternach was granted a town charter in 1236. After the dissolution of the abbey in 1797 the town declined. Only when the railroad reached Echternach in the second half of the 19th century, tourism provided a new source of income for Echternach. The picturesque town is still surrounded by the original medieval walls with towers. Although badly damaged during World War II, the town was thoroughly restored between 1950 and 1955.

The abbey of Echternach [background right] was founded by St. Willibrord in 698 AD. Willibrord was an English monk of Ripon, who became the first bishop of Utrecht and worked to christianize the Frisians. As bishop, he directed the monastery as abbot until his death in 739. Between 659 and 971 the monks were displaced by secular canons of the bishop of Trier. The original buildings were destroyed by a large fire, but the Romanesque basilica (completed in 1031, rebuilt around 1250) still houses Willibrord's tomb in its crypt. In 1737 the basilica was rebuilt in Baroque style. Sixty years later, in 1797, the monks were dispersed and the abbey's treasures and its famous library were auctioned off. Some of the library's early manuscripts are today found in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the 'Golden Bible' (Codex Aureus Epternacensis) today is housed in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, the Codex Aureus Escorialensis is exhibited in the Escorial near Madrid. The abbey was then converted into a porcelain manufacture and only was restored to a church in 1861. The monastery today also runs a grammer school. The church gained the status of a Basilica minor in 1939.

One of the best-known tourist attractions on Echternach is the "Dancing Procession" which takes places on Tuesday after Pentecost. The procession honours St. Willibrord. Thousands of pilgrims, divided into about 50 groups, dance to his tomb in the abbey to the tunes and rhythms played by an equal number of music bands. The origin of this cult and procession is largely unknown. Since 1975 Echternach is also the place of an annual festival of classical music.

The houses depicted in the foreground of the picture on glass no.1851 today are part of Echternacherbrück, Germany.