Canton of Esch-sur-Alzette

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Esch-sur-Alzette is a canton in southwestern Luxembourg. It is both the second most populous and second most densely populated canton after the canton of Luxembourg.

Administrative divisions

Esch-sur-Alzette Canton consists of the following fourteen communes:

• Bettembourg
• Differdange
• Dudelange
• Esch-sur-Alzette
• Frisange
• Kayl
• Leudelange
• Mondercange
• Pétange
• Reckange-sur-Mess
• Roeser
• Rumelange
• Sanem
• Schifflange

History

Like the other cantons of Luxembourg, the canton of Esch dates back to 31 August 1795. However, it was created under the name of the canton of

The Treaty of London of 1839 divided Luxembourg, and in doing so, also partitioned the border cantons, from Troisvierges to Pétange.

The neighbour of the canton of Esch was that of Messancy, whose territory mostly passed to Belgium. The rest, that is the communes of Pétange and Differdange, was added to the canton of Bettembourg. At the same time, however, Bettembourg canton lost the commune of Dippach to the canton of Capellen, and the commune of Weiler-la-Tour to Luxembourg canton. With 13,116 inhabitants, the canton of Bettembourg was second to that of Luxembourg, with 27,891 inhabitants. Bettembourg was an agricultural canton. Minette ore was still unknown. Alluvial ore was scraped and washed in Bascharage, Pétange, Differdange, Esch, Kayl and Bettembourg. In terms of factories, there was only the blast furnace of Lasauvage. There were no cities. Esch, which would later become a city, had at this time only 1,400 inhabitants. In Esch, there were two tanneries.^[1]

After an administrative reorganisation, necessitated by the partition, a decree of 12 October 1842 transferred the justice of the peace, and therefore the administrative centre of the canton, from Bettembourg to Esch. The reason was that, due to the additions to the west and the territorial losses in the east mentioned above, the canton's centre had moved to the west, and now, more than ever, Bettembourg was on the periphery.^[1]

However, the question of its administrative centre came up again when, in 1849, the Chamber of Deputies, considered a bill to re-establish the justice of the peace in Bettembourg, and therefore the canton's centre. The originator of this bill was the notary Graas, from Bettembourg. Four communes of the canton supported it, while seven opposed it. The government was also against it, and the bill failed.^[1]

In 1860, the mayors of Clemency, Dippach, Bascharage, Pétange, Sanem and Differdange addressed a petition to the Assembly of Estates, demanding that due to their great distance from the canton's centre Esch, they should be carved off and organised into their own new canton of Bascharage. The petition was not taken into consideration by the Assembly.^[1]

Since then, the canton of Esch has seen several internal changes.

Since 1847, the inhabitants of Leudelange had not ceased to demand their separation from the commune of Reckange, and to be organised into a distinct commune. As justification they invoked Reckange's distance of more than 6 km, the fact that Leudelange was already a parish and that, until 1821, there had been a commune of Leudelange. At the session of the Estates of 15 February 1856, this was approved by 33 votes to 3. Then, in 1862, in a petition to the Estates, the commune of Leudelange demanded to be detached from the canton of Esch to be added to that of Luxembourg.  ^[1]

Population

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

^[2]

See also

• Esch-sur-Alzette (Chamber of Deputies of Luxembourg constituency)

References