Echternach Saint Willibrord Heritage

The EHL Site

The “Echternach Saint Willibrord Heritage” is situated in Echternach, in the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg. Echternach is the oldest city of Luxembourg and was founded in 698 by Willibrord. The heritage comprises the Basilica, the former buildings of the abbey, which is a secondary school now, and the Museum of the Abbey.

Willibrord was an Anglo-Saxon missionary and saint, known as the “Apostle to the Frisians” in the modern Netherlands. Willibrord was sent, along with eleven companions, to Christianise the pagan Frisians of the North Sea coast at the request of Pepin of Herstal.

He became the first bishop of Utrecht, travelled several times to Rome, he stayed and died in Echternach, in 793. His is the only saint buried on Luxembourgish ground. You can visit his tomb in the crypt of the Basilica in Echternach. The famous Hopping Procession of Echternach, listed on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, is the most famous part of Willibrord’s intangible heritage. An in-house Documentation Center is dedicated to it.

European dimension

The life and journeys of Willibrord played a ground-breaking role in the early medieval unification of Europe through faith and culture. The Echternach scriptorium illustrates the exchanges between insular and continental artists and patrons creating a common European heritage.

The Hopping Procession is an annual European happening, performed by pilgrims from Luxembourg, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, France, and Eastern Europe.

The organization

The city of Echternach and the Regional Tourist Office Mullerthal Region – Luxembourg’s Little Switzerland are the two organizations in charge with the management of the Echternach Saint Willibrord Heritage