Postcard Vianden with castle and Hockelsturm, view from the route de Fouhren

Luxembourgian postcard from the early twentieth century showing a black-and-white phototype of the town of Vianden seen from the road from Fouhren. The image shows in the upper left on its rocky promontory the famous Castle of Vianden, at the foot of the hill the roofs of the fortified town with its church tower in the centre, and on the right in middle distance the Hockelsturm, one of the original defensive towers of the medieval town wall. In the background, the rolling hill country of the Oesling. At the top, the bilingual caption "Vianden. Vue de la route de Fouhren — Ansicht von der Fouhrenerstrasse." The verso bears the trilingual header "Postkarte — Carte postale — Post Card" and "Weltpostverein — Union postale universelle" in reddish-brown ink, with divided back. The verso is unwritten and unposted. The card is in good condition.

The Castle of Vianden, built between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries on the foundations of a late Roman castellum, was for centuries the seat of the powerful Counts of Vianden, whose possessions extended over a territory equivalent to today's Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. After the marriage in 1264 of Henri I of Vianden to Marguerite of Courtenay, niece of the French king, the castle was rebuilt and enlarged in Gothic style. In the nineteenth century the complex fell into ruin and was partially dismantled between 1851 and 1852 by King William III, who sold it to local peasants who used stones and beams for their own construction. Major restorations did not begin until the second half of the twentieth century, which means this postcard shows the castle in a ruinous intermediate state, more monumental than ever through its very dilapidation. The town of Vianden, proclaimed a romantic destination by the French writer Victor Hugo in 1871, developed during the first decades of the twentieth century as one of the principal tourist towns of Luxembourg.