What are Casemates?

A UNESCO World Heritage site! The Bock casemates are is famous historical site and part of the fortifications in Luxembourg city, the city itself is also called the Gibraltar of the north. It was here that Count Siegfried from Trier (now Germany) built his castle first in 963.
Full of mystery, if only they could talk-- they would reveal gloomy stories of long ago when Luxembourg was the most envied fortification in Europe.
The word is derived from the Greek "chasma(ta" meaning chasm. It is a "bomb-proof" vaulted room situated in the actual body of the works leading to one or more embrasures or intended to accommodate  troops and equipment.

The interior had a spiral staircase with worn stairs hewn out of rock that reminded me of the narrow spiral staircases at Bunratty Castle in Ireland; hard enough to climb, tricky to navigate when you encounter traffic coming down.
Another set of casemates, even a hundred years older, The Petrusse Casemates, were currently closed for renovation.
Several legends tell the story of Siegfried's wife, Melusine. Allegedly, she was locked up in the Bock, knitting to pass the time and only doing one stitch a year. Another legend claims she was a mermaid and when Siegfried found out one day, she disappeared into the Petrusse only to come back every seven years and taking several people with her.
Here's a glimpse down her well, 47 m deep!

Nice and cool on a hot day, it's hard to imagine how people lived here during times of sieges. Visiting is a pure delight for children: knights, dungeons, canons...