Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo, the famous French poet, came four times to Vianden. In August 1862 on a journey through the Ardennes, Hugo was delighted by the imposing scenery of Vianden. He retourned to Vianden in 1863 and was warmly welcomed by the local phiharmonic society. After a short stay in 1865, Hugo, having been expelled from Belgium on 30th May 1871, found a refuge at Vianden. While his family and attendants put up at the Hotel Koch. Victor Hugo took up his residenceon thr first floor of the neighbouring house, next to the bridge. Here the poet wrote part of the “ Année Terrible ” . From his window he saw the majestic outline of the castle and he watched the busy activity of Vianden’s inhabitants. “ Vianden, he wrote, embedded in a splendit landscape, will be visited one day by tourits from the whole of Europe, attracted both by its sinister but magnificent ruin and by its cheerful and happy poeple. ”On 14 July 1871 Victor Hugo took charge of the operations to extinguish a fire wich had set the thached roofs of some ten downtown houses ablaze. The ajor being adsent, the poet organized a line of firebuckets down to the river and actively joined the firemen for more than an hour and half during the night.
At Vianden, Victor Hugo fell in love with a young eighteen –year-old women, Marie Mecier, who had been the companion of the locksmith Maurice Garreau, the head of the Mazas jail during the Commune. At Vianden Victor Hugo had his first Tooth extracted on 11. August 1871.
Les Amis de la Maison de Victor Hugo à Vianden
www.victor-hugo.lu