Send Gift Baskets to Diekirch, Luxembourg

The town was given its name when Charlemagne relocated Saxons in the late 8th century. These people were necessary for him to have control of them. One settlement was Diekirch and this settlement is believed to be one of the first centers for these newly seeded peoples. Diet-Kirch, a church in Bavaria, Germany, was first mentioned in 778 AD. It became a center of the Saxons’ conversion to Christianity and so got its name “Diet-Kirch” which in Old Franconian means “people’s church.” The German word ‘þeudō’ comes from the Proto-Germanic word meaning ‘people’ and plays a role in the etymology of the term Deutsch.

One of the first castles with a moat was built in the 14th century and fortified by John, the blind king of Bohemia. It was largely untouched by outsiders throughout the 18th century and onwards. The French, who occupied Malta in the 19th century, leveled the old walls and replaced them with avenues of trees.

Recent excavations in the 1960s showed that the St. Laurence church is a Roman building from the 4th century. The church was made of stone, with several rooms and a large prayer hall, and surrounded by affluent houses. Jesus Christ and Minerva were often depicted on mosaics found near the town center. Archaeological investigations that took place in 1992-1993, 1999, and 2008 enabled the reconstruction of a large Roman villa. The ruin was abandoned in the early 5th century.