Photo Rol Schleich
16, Route d'Arlon
L-8210 Mamer
tel: 31 91 51
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Kayl

Located in the south of the country, this old village has become a well populated place without loosing its rural character. Embedded in a fertile valley crossed by the "Kaylbach" creek, flanked by hills extending the french mountain range of the Vosges culminating at the Brucherberg with 404 meters. It is said that the Kayl valley was already populated 3000 BC, and through the years we'll find different spellings of the name Kayl: Keyle, Keylle, Keil, Keill, Keille, Gaul to name only the most frequent ones.

The oldest documents originating in the 13th century mention a lordship, owning a fortified manor in the middle of the village, whose escutchon depicted a black griffin on yellow ground.

It seems as though the celts and the romans were already interested in the valleys' iron ore, but the exploitation at a larger scale only begun during the 19th century lasting for more than 100 years. The first franchises on the Kayler Bann were granted in 1855. At many places (Brucherbierg / Rischelerkopp / Eiweschbour and others), people were extracting the precious ore with shovels, scoops, hammers, drills and explosives, and finaly loaded it on Buggys for transportation. The alarm cry Gare la Mine (Mind the blast!) echoing through the valley even cut short the horse drivers' cruses. It was hard labour, and many are the miners who payed with their lives for the wealth of our country. Today however, calmness has returned to the countrys' south where all of the mines have been shut down.

Kayl always was the main village of the Kayl valley, until a 100 years ago, the village of Rumelange was separated from Kayl and Tétange. Today, the municipality of Kayl counts approximately 6640 inhabitants, 4063 of them are living in the village of Kayl. Almost 20% of the inhabitants have foreign citizenship, the major part being italian and portuguese. All in all you can find 28 different nations among our foreign friends.

Clubs full of activity, promoting sports and cultur, display the social comittement of our citizens. Without classifying our inhabitants by profession, we should remind our visitors that the majority of Kayls' inhabitants used to be farmers whereas those living in Tétange were mainly workers. Even nowadays, there are 5 exploited farms left in Kayl, in Tétange there is only one.

Rumelange

The Neandertals (40.000 BC) roamed the plateau around Rumelange. Bits of stones called levalloisiens found lately prooved this assumption. They were followed by the hunters of middle stone-age (8500 -4500 BC). They left their traces at a place called Gebrannte Bösch, meaning burned wood.

Joseph Flies said in his book Der Johannisberg (Mount St. Jean) " Rumelange ows its name first of all to the water and only then to the red rocks". The spelling varies over time: Rumelacha (698/699), Rumelenges (1297), Rimlingen (1368) etc.

Rumelange always was border teritory. In the past, the village was even split in a french and a luxembourgish half. The border line as it is known today has been defined at the Courtrai Treaty 28 of march 1820 between the royal commissioners of the netherlands and France. The Moulin Rouge (Red mill) used to be on the ground yielded by the french. Count Hunolstein tore it down in 1810 to build his new cleaving and platinization plant.

© Aloyse TERZER

Rumelange has also written mining history. In 1468 a first forge already existed in the woods of Ottange, a french village close to Rumelange. In 1751, a forge in Rumelange is mentioned for the first time. The iron was solely made from alluvium ore and charcoal.

Charles Joseph Collardt, owner of the forge in Dommeldange, acquired the first franchise on Rumelanges' territory on 13th of april 1824. Now, the industrial exploitation of the Minette (Iron Ore) begun for real. In 1862, a railroad linking the villages of Ottange, Rumelange and Noertzange was build. Again, count Hunolstein intervened to accelarate the building of this railroad in order to gain access to his new factory in Ottange.

Nic Gonner founded the factory in Rumelange in 1872.

Population was growing steadily. In the 15th century, there were only 12 houses, in 1891, there were already 2796 souls. The law of 27th of june 1891 decreeted that the village of Rumelange was to be separated from the municipality of Kayl. Rumenlange became a municipality on its own and was granted the title of city on 4th of august 1907.

The steel industry ruled the city for more than 100 years. The factory was shut down in 1918, the cement works followed in 1925, and the last mine closed its gates in 1978.

Nevertheless, the miner stays on the citys' crest as a witness of the industrialisation of the Grand Duchy. The National Mining Museum build on the ground of a real mine, shows the tools, the machines and the installations of these glorious times

Nowadays, Rumelange counts approximately 4200 inhabitants and remains an industrial city even though the mining activity has stopped thanks to the factories and companies that settled down in Rumelange.