Echternach Facts for Kids

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Echternach

Iechternach

Looking east across Echternach.

Coat of arms

Map showing, in orange, the Echternach commune

Country

Luxembourg

Canton

Echternach

Commune

Echternach

Area

• Total

20.5 km² (7.9 sq mi)

Highest elevation

393 m (1,289 ft)

Lowest elevation

154 m (505 ft)

Population

(2017)

• Total

5,530

• Density

269.8/km² (698.7/sq mi)

Time zone

UTC+1 (CET)

• Summer (DST)

UTC+2 (CEST)

LAU2

LU00006005

Website

Official website: http://www.echternach.lu/

Echternach (Luxembourgish: Iechternach) is a commune in eastern Luxembourg, capital of the Echternach canton. It is the oldest town with city rights in Luxembourg.

History
Geography
Population
Gallery
Related pages
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See also

History

Basilica of Echternach

The town grew around the walls of the Abbey of Echternach, which was founded in 698 by St. Willibrord, an English monk from Ripon, Northumbria (in present-day North Yorkshire, England), who became the first bishop of Utrecht and worked to Christianize the Frisians.

The abbey were closed during the French revolution in 1797. Echternach was given city rights in the year 1236.

Geography

Echternach is in the east of the country near the border with Germany, on the banks of the Saar River.

The commune has an area of 20.5 km² (7.9 sq mi). The altitude is 154–393 m (505–1,289 ft) high. At the city hall, the altitude is 230 m (750 ft) high.

Echternach is surrounded by four communes of Luxembourg: Rosport to the east and south, Bech to the southwest, and Berdorf and Consdorf to the west. To the north, the commune borders the Echternacherbrück municipality of the Bitburg-Prüm district in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate; and to the northwest the Bollendorf municipality, also in the Bitburg-Prüm district of the Rhineland-Palatinate.