Echternach

Every year, on the first Tuesday after Pentecost, thousands of pilgrims flock to Echternach for the famous procession. They ‘dance to the rhythm of a polka’ through the city on their way to the basilica with the crypt and the grave of Saint Willibrord, the Irish monk and missionary who founded the Benedictine chapel in 698. The young, militant Willibrord chose Echternach as his base for his, apparently, rather harsh conversion missions to the north. He died in 739, surrounded by a fragrance of holiness. Nevertheless, the monks managed to maintain their presence and assert their influence until 1789, the year in which the French revolutionaries brought down everything that inclined towards sanctity. The good monks were ‘revolutionarily’ requested to pack their bags. The abbey later served among other things as a porcelain factory and even for a time as a barracks.

Lannoo