Luxembourg Trivia
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50 free Luxembourg trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Luxembourg trivia quiz covers the small country in full. It opens with the essentials — the borders, the three languages and which one the laws are written in, the grand duchy and its 2025 succession, the EU court on the Kirchberg — then digs into a thousand years of history: Count Siegfried and the Bock in 963, Emperor Henry VII, John the Blind at Crécy, the Golden Bull, three partitions, the 1867 crisis, Marie-Adélaïde's abdication and the Battle of the Bulge. It also collects the things worth knowing over dinner: why the city is the Gibraltar of the North, what happened at Schengen in 1985, who fathered the euro, the hopping procession of Echternach, the Codex Aureus, Bouneschlupp, Radio Luxembourg, Josy Barthel's Olympic gold, the Schleck brothers, Gabriel Lippmann's colour photographs and Vicky Krieps. About a third of the questions are easy; the rest will surprise even people who have visited. Our Romania and Belgium pages continue the tour. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's Luxembourg articles and the sources they cite, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Luxembourg's red, white and light-blue flag is often mistaken for which country's flag?
Netherlands
Netherlands. Luxembourg's colours are thought to come from the red lion on blue and white stripes in its rulers' medieval arms; a 2006 proposal to fly that lion instead failed to replace the tricolour.
Q 02Which three countries border Luxembourg?
Belgium, Germany and France
Belgium, Germany and France. Some 200,000 workers, close to half the workforce, commute in from the three every working day, drawn by Luxembourg's high salaries.
Q 03Which French author stayed in the Luxembourg town of Vianden in 1871, in a house that is now his museum?
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo. He had already visited in 1862 and 1865; in 1871 he lodged by the bridge over the Our and sketched the ruined castle above the town, and his drawings and letters are still shown in the house.
Q 04Which language is the only one used to write Luxembourg's laws?
French
French. A 1984 law made Luxembourgish the national language yet kept French for legislation, because the country's legal system is built on the Napoleonic Code.
Q 05Luxembourg's largest foreign community comes from which southern European country?
Portugal
Portugal. A low birth rate left Luxembourg short of workers, and migration that took off around 1970 made the Portuguese the largest group in a country where nearly half of all residents hold a foreign passport.
Q 06Who became Grand Duke of Luxembourg in October 2025 after his father abdicated?
Guillaume V
Guillaume V. Henri first made him lieutenant-representative in October 2024, the family's customary step before a handover, then used his Christmas message to say he would abdicate on 3 October 2025.
Q 07Which European Union institution has its official seat in Luxembourg City?
The EU Court of Justice
The EU Court of Justice. In 1952 the six founding states could not agree on a capital, so Luxembourg City took in the first institutions as a stopgap, and the judges have stayed ever since.
Q 08Luxembourg's recorded history begins in 963 when which count acquired the castle on the Bock rock?
Siegfried of the Ardennes
Siegfried of the Ardennes. He gave land of his own to St. Maximin's Abbey in Trier in exchange for the rocky spur, and the small fort there, Lucilinburhuc, went on to give the whole country its name.
Q 09Which Count of Luxembourg became Holy Roman Emperor in 1312?
Henry VII
Henry VII. Elected German king in 1308, he won the throne of Bohemia for his son before his coronation in Rome, then died near Siena a year later while trying to bring Italy to heel.
Q 10Luxembourg's national hero John the Blind died heroically at which 1346 battle?
Crécy
Crécy. Blind for a decade, he asked his knights to take him far enough forward to strike one blow; Froissart wrote that they tied their bridles together and were found dead around him.
Q 11Which Holy Roman Emperor, son of Luxembourg's John the Blind, issued the Golden Bull of 1356?
Charles IV
Charles IV. His Golden Bull named the seven princes who would elect each German king and let a majority of four decide, which left the pope no say in the choice.
Q 12What nickname did Luxembourg City's fortress earn for its reputed impregnability?
The Gibraltar of the North
The Gibraltar of the North. After a seven-month siege in 1795, Carnot told France it had taken the best fortress in Europe after Gibraltar; pulling it down under the 1867 treaty took sixteen years.
Q 13The 1839 Treaty of London handed the western half of Luxembourg to which country?
Belgium
Q 21Which founding father of the European Union was born in Luxembourg City?
Robert Schuman
Robert Schuman. Born in the suburb of Clausen to a father from Lorraine, he grew up a German citizen, became French only after the First World War and went on to propose Europe's coal and steel pool.
Q 22Which Luxembourg prime minister drew up the 1970 plan for a single European currency?
Pierre Werner
Pierre Werner. Often called the father of the euro, he proposed a monetary union in three stages, but the collapse of Bretton Woods in 1971 and the 1973 oil crisis shelved the idea for two decades.
Q 23Which American general is buried among his Third Army soldiers at the Luxembourg American Cemetery in Hamm?
George S. Patton
Belgium. The partition cost Luxembourg more than half its territory, and the lost land is still the Belgian province of Luxembourg, which is larger than the country it was cut from.
Q 14Which French ruler's 1867 bid to buy Luxembourg from its grand duke nearly brought war with Prussia?
Napoleon III
Napoleon III. The sale was agreed for five million guilders, but an outcry in Germany forced Bismarck to object, and a conference in London made Luxembourg a neutral state instead.
Q 15Which sentence, taken from an 1859 patriotic song, is known as Luxembourg's national motto?
We want to remain what we are
We want to remain what we are. In Luxembourgish, Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sinn: it closes the chorus of De Feierwon, a song written to greet the country's first international railway.
Q 16Why did Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde abdicate in 1919?
She was seen as having collaborated with the Germans
She was seen as having collaborated with the Germans. She had received the Kaiser during the occupation; after stepping down for her younger sister she entered a Carmelite convent in Italy.
Q 17Which Grand Duchess rallied occupied Luxembourg with wartime BBC broadcasts from exile?
Charlotte
Charlotte. Asked to return to her occupied country, she refused, and her voice on the radio made her a figurehead of the resistance until she came home in April 1945.
Q 18Which World War II offensive devastated northern Luxembourg in the winter of 1944–45?
The Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge. Most of the country had been freed in September 1944 before the German attack rolled back over the north that December; the last town, Vianden, was liberated only in February 1945.
Q 19During the German occupation, which Luxembourg City landmark did the Nazis turn into a concert hall and tavern?
The Grand Ducal Palace
The Grand Ducal Palace. Swastika flags hung down its front and much of its furniture and art was lost; the court moved back in only when the Grand Duchess came home from exile in 1945.
Q 20Near which Luxembourg village was the 1985 agreement ending internal European border checks signed?
Schengen
Schengen. The deal was signed aboard the riverboat Princesse Marie-Astrid at the spot where Luxembourg, France and Germany meet, chosen as a symbol of open borders; only five countries signed at first.
George S. Patton. He had run his army from Luxembourg City, survived the war, then died after a car crash in Germany in December 1945 and was buried beside his men, as he had asked.
Q 24Luxembourg is slightly smaller in area than which US state?
Rhode Island
Rhode Island. Luxembourg was once about four times its present size: three partitions between 1659 and 1839 cut the old duchy down to the 2,586 square kilometres it covers today.
Q 25Luxembourg City stands at the confluence of the Pétrusse and which other river?
Alzette
Alzette. The two rivers have cut deep gorges around the old town and left it perched on cliffs above their valleys, the natural defence that drew first a castle and then a fortress to the spot.
Q 26The Bock, site of the original Luxembourg castle, is famous for what network cut into the rock?
Casemates
Casemates. Austrian engineers enlarged the old castle cellars in the 1740s into galleries that could house 1,200 soldiers, and the tunnels outlasted the fortress above them, which was dismantled after 1867.
Q 27Which Northumbrian missionary founded an abbey in Luxembourg in 698 and became the country's patron saint?
Willibrord
Willibrord. Sent to convert the Frisians, he became the first bishop of Utrecht, then built his abbey on a villa estate given to him by the noblewoman Irmina, and chose to be buried there in 739.
Q 28What unusual annual event honours Luxembourg's patron saint at the abbey he founded?
A hopping or dancing procession
A hopping or dancing procession. Every Whit Tuesday, pilgrims in rows linked by white handkerchiefs hop from side to side through the town to the saint's tomb, a rite UNESCO listed in 2010.
Q 29Which Luxembourgish runner shocked the 1952 Helsinki Olympics by winning the 1500 metres?
Josy Barthel
Josy Barthel. Well down the field in the 1948 final, he surprised the crowd and himself four years later with a late burst that beat the American Bob McMillen to the line.
Q 30Which Luxembourgish cyclist was awarded the 2010 Tour de France after Alberto Contador's doping case?
Andy Schleck
Andy Schleck. On stage 15 his chain came off as he attacked in the yellow jersey and Contador rode on; he lost 39 seconds that day, exactly his losing margin in Paris, and was handed the title in 2012.