As of March 2020 cities around the world have entered lockdowns and staying home has become the new norm for many people. Luxembourg City is no exception and has been deserted. As streets have emptied out and roadworks have come to a standstill, the city presents an eerie spectacle of loneliness and silence.

All pictures in this post were made in the first week of April 2020 during a solitary morning walk through the city’s usually most lively places.

Deserted city center

Luxembourg City’s center is usually one of its most bustling neighbourhoods visited by locals and tourists alike. Recently though the once busy town-squares and parks have been eerily quiet. Not a single soul stands on the Bockfiels where tourists usually gather every day to admire the city’s most beautiful balcony.

A central station devoid of travellers

In other parts of the city the emptiness is even more noticeable. The usually so busy central station where hundreds if not thousands of people travel through every day is now only visited by the few people that still rely on public transportation to go to work. While this place is no stranger to the homeless, their presence is now even more striking with nearly nobody else around. Red safety tape has been put in place everywhere around the station to prevent travellers from lingering.

The atmosphere is especially dire on Avenue de la Liberté where work on the new tram tracks have come to a complete halt. The abandoned construction sites where heavy machinery stands in silence is a strange sight. Walking through these parts of the city between metal fences and ripped-open roads definitely gives a chilling apocalyptic feeling.

The way out

As of mid-April the first European countries have started relaxing lockdown measures. Luxembourg has also begun its deconfinement by restarting roadworks and slowly re-open schools as well as shops in the coming weeks. Hopefully this lockdown will soon be behind us, although the memory of it will remain…