Luxembourg
POPULATION 448,569
ROMAN CATHOLIC 65.9 percent
PROTESTANT 1.2 percent
JEHOVAH'S WITNESS 0.8 percent
MUSLIM 0.7 percent
JEWISH 0.5 percent
ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN 0.5 percent
OTHER 0.9 percent
NONRELIGIOUS 29.5 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, covering just 998 square miles (2,586 square kilometers), is situated between France, Belgium, and Germany. Before the Roman conquest (58–50 B.C.E.) under Julius Caesar, the area was inhabited by a Celtic tribe, the Treveri, who practiced a polytheist Celtic faith. After the conquest this faith evolved into a Gallo-Roman religion. The Titelberg Mountain near Rodange was the main oppidum (political, religious, and industrial center) of the Treveri. Beginning in the third century C.E. Christianity progressively supplanted the Gallo-Roman religion. An invasion of German tribes two centuries later brought extensive political and cultural changes.
The Spanish Habsburgs ruled Luxembourg from 1506 to 1684, and the Austrian Habsburgs ruled from 1698 to 1795. During this time Roman Catholicism became a state religion. With the French occupation beginning in 1795, a slow process of secularization began. In 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon, Luxembourg became a grand duchy, initially in union with the kingdom of The Netherlands. As part of a greater rebellion against The Netherlands, Luxembourg lost its western portion to Belgium in 1830.
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