A tour of Luxembourgish women's lives and legends
Representatives of two different generations of Luxembourgish women set out on the Luxembourg City Tourist Office Tour ‘Women: Lives and Legends.’ A tour that highlights women who ruled, women who cared, women who created, and women who won - all contributing to shaping today’s Luxembourg.
Women in politics
In 13th century Luxembourg, there lived a Countess called Ermesinde. Married when she was 12 and widowed twice by the age of 40, she governed Luxembourg for over two decades. This was known as the era of peace and prosperity.
But Luxembourg’s female legends reach back even further into myth and memory. At the Bock, where Count Siegfried founded his castle in 963, legend tells of Melusina, his mysterious wife who vanished into the Alzette River after he broke his promise to grant her privacy every Saturday. She remains a powerful figure in Luxembourgish folklore and a symbol passed down through generations. Isabelle reflects: “As a child, I was convinced Melusina was unique to Luxembourg. I was slightly disappointed when I later discovered she appears in folklore across Europe…”
She is not the only female political figure celebrated on the tour, led by city guide, retired nurse and lifelong historical enthusiast Lou Spaus, together with globally published author and screenwriter Isabelle Marinov.
Fast forward some 800 years, and the tour takes us next to Place Guillaume II, where Luxembourg City’s mayor, Lydie Polfer, has her office. She became mayor at just 29 and continues to lead this vibrant, multicultural city into its prosperous future.
In front of the Chamber of Deputies, Isabelle takes a photo of her feet on the memorial tile for women’s suffrage in 1919. Luxembourg was one of the first countries in the world to grant women the right to vote.
The first woman elected to the Chamber of Deputies was teacher Marguerite Thomas Clement in 1919. That same year, Grand Duchess Charlotte acceded to the throne as the first constitutional monarch, boldly leading Luxembourg through the Second World War and into its modern democratic era.
