Belgian Lorraine is the part of Lorraine that lies in the south of the Belgian province of Luxembourg, in Wallonia.
The term is used solely in a geological context, as the region borders the geologically-distinct Ardennes, to the north.
Culturally and linguistically, Belgian Lorraine is made up of two sub-regions:
Both have Standard French as official administrative language, with Luxembourgish recognised as a minority language by the French Community of Belgium.
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a small landlocked country in Western Europe. It borders Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France to the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembourg, is one of the four institutional seats of the European Union and the seat of several EU institutions, notably the Court of Justice of the European Union, the highest judicial authority. Luxembourg's culture, people, and languages are highly intertwined with its French and German neighbors; while Luxembourgish is the only national language of the Luxembourgish people and of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, French is the only language for legislation, and all three – Luxembourgish, French and German – are used for administrative matters in the country.
Luxembourgish is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 400,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide.
Luxembourg, also called Belgian Luxembourg, is the southernmost province of Wallonia and of Belgium. It borders on the country of Luxembourg to the east, the French departments of Ardennes, Meuse and Meurthe-et-Moselle to the south and southwest, and the Walloon provinces of Namur and Liège to the north. Its capital and largest city is Arlon, in the south-east of the province.
The Ardennes, also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, extending into Germany and France.
Arlon is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in and capital of the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes, Belgium. With a population of just over 28,000, it is the smallest provincial capital in Belgium. Arlon is also the capital of its cultural region: the Arelerland.
Gaume is a region in the extreme southeast of Belgium. At a lower altitude than the Ardennes, it borders the French region of Lorraine to the south, the Land of Arlon to the east, and the Belgian part of the Ardennes to the north.
Moselle Franconian is a West Central German language, part of the Central Franconian languages area, that includes Luxembourgish. It is spoken in the southern Rhineland and along the course of the Moselle, in the Siegerland of North Rhine-Westphalia, throughout western Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, Luxembourg, the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium and in the neighboring French département of Moselle. The Transylvanian Saxon dialect spoken in the Transylvania region of Romania is derived from this dialect as a result of the emigration of numerous "Transylvanian Saxons" between 1100 and 1300, primarily from areas in which the Moselle Franconian dialect was then spoken. Another variety of Moselle Franconian, the Hunsrik, is spoken in some rural areas of southern Brazil, brought by 19th century immigrants from the Hunsrück region in modern Germany.
The Duchy of Luxemburg was a state of the Holy Roman Empire, the ancestral homeland of the noble House of Luxembourg. The House of Luxembourg, now Duke of Limburg, became one of the most important political forces in the 14th century, competing against the House of Habsburg for supremacy in Central Europe. They would be the heirs to the Přemyslid dynasty in the Kingdom of Bohemia, succeeding the Kingdom of Hungary and contributing four Holy Roman Emperors until their own line of male heirs came to an end and the House of Habsburg got the pieces that the two Houses had originally agreed upon in the Treaty of Brünn in 1364.
There were three Partitions of Luxembourg between 1659 and 1839. Together, the three partitions reduced the territory of the Duchy of Luxembourg from 10,700 km2 (4,100 sq mi) to the present-day area of 2,586 km2 (998 sq mi) over a period of 240 years. The remainder forms parts of modern-day Belgium, France, and Germany.
Luxembourg railway station is the main railway station serving Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. It is operated by Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois, the state-owned railway company.
Central or Middle Franconian refers to the following continuum of West Central German dialects:
Athus is a part of Aubange city Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Aubange, located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium.
Toernich is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Arlon, located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium.
The Land of Arlon is the traditionally Luxembourgish-speaking part of Belgian Lorraine, which is now predominantly French-speaking. Arlon is the main city of this region.
Meix-le-Tige is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Saint-Léger, located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium. It was a separate municipality until the 1977 fusion of municipalities.
Victor Jean-Baptiste Tesch was a Luxembourgish and Belgian jurist, industrialist, journalist and liberal politician.