Vianden welcomes tourists with castle, chairlift, and pool experiences

Vianden is a classic tourist town with around 2,200 residents. Each year, it welcomes roughly 600,000 tourists, according to current mayor Francy Weyrich. With its castle, chairlift, and the recently reopened swimming pool, the town boasts three major attractions for visitors.

Jessica Ersfeld, one of 19 employees of the association Les Amis du Château de Vianden, said she was particularly proud of last year's visitor numbers – 265,000 in total. While winters are quieter, the summer months are much busier, she explained, with between 1,500 and 2,000 people passing through the castle's ticket counters each day in high season.

The castle, formerly owned by the Grand Ducal family, has been the property of the Luxembourg State since 1977. Ersfeld explained that the non-profit Les Amis du Château de Vianden was founded the following year to manage all operations on-site, from staffing to organising events.

Visitors can explore around 20 rooms in the castle. Ersfeld noted that the tour generally takes between one and two hours. She added that there is also a relatively new information centre in the courtyard where a video explains the castle's entire construction history.

Dating back roughly 1,000 years, the castle was built during the Romanesque-Gothic period, with some Renaissance elements still visible today. Its location was chosen for strategic reasons.

The castle is open to the public year-round, closing at 4pm in the winter. Ersfeld explained that for six months of the year, opening hours run from 10am to 6pm, adding that an audio guide, available in ten languages, offers information about the site and its history, including explanations of the furnishings and the original uses of each room.

From the castle to chairlift

Since the summer of 1955, Vianden has been home to a chairlift rising from 220m to 440m above sea level at a speed of about 5 km/h. Former mayor Gaby Heger recalled that the six-minute journey was the idea of Raymond Frisch, who later became mayor and was then president of the Syndicat d’Initiative. Vianden has owned the lift since 1985.

Heger also recalled that the new version of the chairlift, introduced on 1 May 2006 for safety reasons, required an enormous effort. She described it as a "Herculean task" to dismantle the old lift and install the new one in such a short time.

The chairlift runs from Easter until the weekend of the Nut Market (in October), but closes when the weather turns bad, current mayor Weyrich explained.

When Mick Jagger rode the chairlift

Today, the chairlift welcomes around 80,000 passengers per season, most of them Dutch tourists, but also many Luxembourgish school groups. The attraction remains a highlight for those exploring Vianden's medieval streets and castle.

Over the decades, it has carried numerous notable passengers, from television presenter Frank Elstner all the way to Mick Jagger, the latter of whom rode the chairlift with his son whilst he was on the 1995 Voodoo Lounge Tour. Their iconic photograph still hangs in the lobby of Hotel Petry in Vianden until this day.

Mick Jagger and his son on the Vianden chairlift in 1995. / © Hotel Petry

Swimming with a castle view

Visitors can now once again swim lengths in the 50m pool at Vianden’s swimming facility. Mayor Weyrich said the next phase of the project, planned for next year, will include a special area for children.

He added that the heated pool is an advantage, as people have still come to swim even in poor weather, and doing so with a view of Vianden Castle has its own charm.

The pool is open to the public until 14 September, from 11am to 7pm until 31 August, and from 11am to 6pm thereafter.

Further details are available at www.visit-vianden.lu.