Remerschen: The Village Behind the Commune of Schengen

The Village That Renamed Itself

Remerschen is a wine village in the south-eastern corner of Luxembourg, close to the point where the Luxembourgish, German and French borders meet. About 765 people live there. Until 2006 it was also the name of the commune: the surrounding administrative district was the commune de Remerschen, and Schengen was one of the villages inside it.

On 18 January 2006 the commune council voted to rename itself Schengen, for the reason anyone would guess - the name recognition belonged to the smaller village down the road, and the commune decided it might as well use it. Remerschen kept its name and lost its billing. In 2011 a law expanded the commune again, absorbing Burmerange and Wellenstein from 1 January 2012; the enlarged commune of Schengen now covers 31.42 square kilometres and about 4,223 people, with Remerschen sitting in the middle of it.

That is the useful thing to know before arriving: Remerschen is the geographic centre of the commune and Schengen is the famous end of it. Signs, bus stops and addresses use both names, and they are not alternatives for the same place.

Wine, and the Moselle Slope Above the Village

This is Moselle wine country. The slopes behind the village are planted, the climate is mild by Luxembourgish standards, and the route through Remerschen is part of the stretch of the river that produces most of the country's wine. It is working agricultural landscape rather than a preserved one - vineyards, a road, and the river below.

Remerschen is a stop on that route rather than a destination on it. There is no old town to walk, no market square worth crossing the country for. What it has is position: vineyards above, a nature reserve below, and Schengen five minutes down the road.

The Lakes Below the Village

Between Remich and Schengen the valley floor holds the Haff Réimech: about 280 hectares of former gravel pits that filled with water and became Luxembourg's most important wetland, protected as Natura 2000 and listed under the Ramsar convention since 1998. It is the richest place in the country for bird species, and the Biodiversum visitor centre sits at the foot of the vineyards on an artificial island in the middle of it, opened in June 2016.

Swimming, birdwatching, when to come and whether the visitor centre is worth the ticket are covered on their own page: the Remerschen lakes and the Biodiversum. The short version is that this, and not the village, is why most people stop here.

Getting There, and What Else Is Within Reach

Remerschen sits on the road between Remich and Schengen, and public transport in Luxembourg is free, which removes the usual question about whether a bus is worth it. The village is a few minutes from Schengen by road and walkable from it if the weather is reasonable.

Next door is Schengen itself, which is a wine village that happens to have given its name to a treaty, and carries the museum, the castle and the monument that go with that. Germany and France are both within sight across the river.

Come to Remerschen for the reserve and the vineyards. Do not come expecting the village to fill an afternoon on its own: it will fill about twenty minutes, and the lakes below it will fill the rest.