Beien an der Stad

1. Luxembourg City Tourist Office (LCTO): The bee and the wasp

Learn about the main differences between bees and wasps.

2. Place de Clairefontaine: Biodiversity

Biodiversity (bio = life, diversity = natural diversity of living organisms: plants, animals, etc.) helps protect the soil, capture pollutants from the air and improve the city's climate, thus generally enhancing quality of life. A great many food production processes rely on biodiversity. Plant and animal diversity is the key to a healthy environment.

3. Rue du St Esprit: Plant boxes and flower beds

Even though most cities are generally covered in sealed surfaces, there are many ways the urban environment can promote biodiversity by supporting a rich variety of plants.

4. National Archives (Archives de l'État): Luxembourg City's bees

In the past, beekeeping was more of a rural endeavour. Over time, however, the residents of urban areas have come to realise the important role bees play in every environment, even the city. They pollinate flowers and other plants, which leads to better crop yields for urban food growers and a wider variety of flowers.

5. Biisserwee: Biodiversity in stone walls

Dry stone walls are a vital habitat for all kinds of animal species. Wild bees aren't the only ones to find refuge here: countless types of insect, bats and lizards also call these walls home.

6. Biisserwee – stairway to Plateau du Rham: House for wild bees

Although the wild bee (also called solitary bee) is not as well known as the honeybee (or foraging bee), it is no less important to maintaining a healthy balance in the environment. Wild bees provide complementary pollination – a valuable contribution to biodiversity.

7. Belvédère 1 – Plateau du Rham: How bees navigate

The mirror gives you an inside view of the beehive: observe the comings and goings of these fascinating creatures at the entrance to their home.

8. Belvédère 2 – Plateau du Rham: Insecticides – a major threat

Bees are finding it increasingly difficult to find their way back to their beehive.

9. Plateau du Rham: Green roofs

Green roofs provide many advantages. Roof-top vegetation can improve the urban climate by insulating buildings and absorbing heat, retaining rainwater in its substrate and regulating moisture through evapotranspiration (water being transferred to the atmosphere through evaporation at ground level and the transpiration of plants).

10. At the foot of the Bock promontory: The colony

Because forager bees are all sterile females, the queen (the only fertile female in the hive) is key to the survival of the colony.

11. At the foot of the Bock promontory: Pollination

An eco-friendly city wouldn't be complete without bees! The terraces and gardens along the Alzette provide an ideal habitat for these creatures. Here, the conservation and creation of habitats such as orchards, dry stone walls, rocks and traditional vegetable gardens help to conserve biodiversity.

12. Near Rue Sostène Weis: The tree trunk hive

In our part of the world, honey bee colonies have a natural tendency to make their home in hollow trees, where they are sheltered from the rain, cold, snow and wind.

While tree trunks serve as natural shelters for bees, log hives were also the first artificial shelters created by humankind, marking the first step in the long tradition of domesticating the bee.

13. Rue Plaetis: Bees and bee products

• Brandy, sweets, shampoo, soap, ointment
• Royal jelly
  • fed to worker bee larvae until their fifth day of life, and to queen bee larvae throughout the larval period
  • used in revitalising products