Who hasn’t been to Limperstberg? Covering 157 hectares, the district lies just north of the Ville-Haute, linking to Kirchberg via the Grande-Duchesse Charlotte bridge. It will shortly be abuzz with activity, per annual custom: the Schueberfouer kicks off on 23 August and will last until 11 September. But even outside fun-fair season, Limpertsberg is a hopping place.
Population: 11,363, many of them expatriates. Undoubtedly one of the capital’s most cosmopolitan districts, with some 131 nationalities living side by side. And dominated by youngsters, with 54% of its residents being under 40.
Cultural venues
The area is ideal for families. It boasts schools, almost a dozen playgrounds, parks with green space… but another of its strengths is the range of cultural and leisure activities: the nearby Grand Théâtre is home to opera, dance and theatre, with seating for over 1,000 in its two halls, while you also have the Utopia cinema as well as two centres for cultural and community events, the Tramsschapp and Victor Hugo Hall. This year, in November, the ninth will light up the district too.
“There’s plenty to do in the district. You can easily spend the whole day here, doing your shopping, getting some fresh air, getting a bit of culture. Limpertsberg is a really lively area,” says Oksana, 32, an expat who moved here just before the pandemic. Shopping opportunities in the district are indeed extensive. Strikingly, so is the number of restaurants and their variety of specialities. “It’s easy to take a culinary trip around the world here,” says Oksana with a smile. Besides bars and restaurants, the neighbourhood is home to the Gotham, one of Luxembourg’s nightlife hotspots.
Olivier Hespeel, longtime Limpertsberg resident, offers a more nuanced view. “The area has changed a lot in 20 years. It’s well served, there are a number of shops giving us our pick of prices… though a little self-service option open later in the evening wouldn’t go amiss,” says Hespeel, who works in events management and has frequented the country’s nightclubs. “On the whole, we all know each other a bit. It’s an area where people party in the evenings. But there have also been other changes, notably a phenomenon of begging that we didn't see a few years ago.”
On the terrace of Top Twenty, on Avenue Pasteur, the perspective is a little less tender--though also constructive. The owner laments the closure, for works, of a small passageway linking Avenue Pasteur with another street, Victor Hugo. This has affected her bar and sandwich shop’s visibility. “It’s a catastrophe. Also, there are elderly people in the area, and now they have to go all the way around, and the new cycle lanes have taken away parking spaces.”
Gilles Mehlinger, who has lived in and loved Limpertsberg all his life, has also taken a darker view of its condition. He points out the differences between the upper part of the district and the lower part, around the Glacis. “Everything above the church is still fine, but there are more and more problems below. There are building sites that are destroying the environment and the trees, there are incidents of violence that sometimes make you feel unsafe, especially at night. You get the impression that everything is done for people passing through, but that the residents are sometimes forgotten.” He, too, is quite upset about the cycle lanes, which have reduced parking capacity.
Why not go and see for yourself? There are plenty of little curiosities to discover in the district, including the sculptures in Tony-Neuman Park, the remarkable tombs of Notre-Dame and the water tower. The Sunday Glacismaart will be back in action on 17 September.
This article in Paperjam. It has been translated and edited for Delano.