Bonnevoie

Bonnevoie

Bonnevoie (Luxembourgish: Bouneweg pronounced [ˈbəʊ.nə.vəɕ] , German: Bonneweg) is an area of south-eastern Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. It is divided between the quarters of North Bonnevoie-Verlorenkost and South Bonnevoie. It is the biggest neighbourhood in the city, with more than 15,000 inhabitants.

Famous people born in, or residents of Bonnevoie include:

• John E. Dolibois, United States ambassador to Luxembourg
• Hugo Gernsback, editor and science fiction author
• François Hentges, gymnast
• Gabriel Lippmann, French physicist and Nobel Prize laureate (1908)
• Corinne Cahen, Luxembourg Minister of Family and Integration and the Greater Region in the Bettel–Schneider ministry

History

In the early 1990s, the City of Luxembourg decided to radically regenerate the centre of Bonnevoie. The basic idea of the urbanistic concept consisted of redeveloping the city areas which were at this time dominated by car traffic: the three-lane Rue de Bonnevoie and the roundabout on the Place Léon XIII. For traffic reasons the redevelopment was to take place in two parts. The work of the first phase was finished in 2002.

The centrepiece of the first phase was the Place Léon XIII. This handsomely designed urban space lies exactly in the elongation of the centre nave of the Bonnevoie church, and with its fountains, benches and trees is designed to invite people to linger amid the busy Bonnevoie centre.

Churches

There is an oral tradition among inhabitants that that a chapel or church of Saint Irmina once existed in Bonnevoie. It is not known where this chapel was located, who built it or what its fate was. From visitation reports of the archdiocese of Trier, it appears that in the 11th century a chapel to Saint Irmina was consecrated in the old parish of Hollerich.

It appears that the lepers of the city had settled around this chapel.

Further reading

• Bange, Evamarie (2005). "Fromme Frauen und Geldgeschäfte: Zeugnisse zur Abtei von Bonneweg" (PDF). ons stad (in German) (79): 24–25.
• Wagener, Renée (2005). "Bonnevoie-Nord: le charme discret d'un quartier populaire" (PDF). ons stad (in French) (79): 2–5.