European school
Multilingual and multicultural education
The European School is the biggest educational facility on the Kirchberg Plateau. It forms part of a network of thirteen European Schools spread over six countries (Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands). A second campus in Luxembourg was opened in 2004 in Mamer.
The European Schools are formal educational establishments created jointly by the European Union and the governments of the Member States. They enjoy a legal status as a public establishment in each of these States.
The vocation of the European Schools is to provide a multilingual and multicultural education to children at nursery, primary and secondary levels. They are primarily aimed at the children of staff in the European Institutions.
The first European School was established in Luxembourg in October 1953, originally as a private initiative by a group of officials in the High Authority of the ECSC (European Coal and Steel Community), with support from the Community institutions and from the Luxembourg government. The first primary and nursery classes opened in a house on Avenue Pasteur in the Limpertsberg district, while secondary school pupils were housed in the Villa Lentz in Hollerich. In 1957, the building for the European School was officially opened on Boulevard de la Foire, built by the state and now bringing together the three levels of schooling.
To address the significant expansion in the school population from the end of the 1950s and in anticipation of the enlargement of the European Community, the state of Luxembourg decided to build a school campus, with pupils being welcomed on-site from September 1971. The school in Boulevard de la Foire was renovated.
The number of students continued to climb. A new nursery school was opened in 1993, and in 1994 the Chamber of Deputies approved a law authorising the government to undertake the restructuring and extension of the European School in Kirchberg, including development of the surrounding areas. The task of urban redevelopment and architectural redesign was entrusted to the offices of Christian Bauer & Associés Architectes. The European School is one of the first projects to be realised in Kirchberg which puts into practice the tenets of urban densification and buildings fronting onto the road.
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