Founder of the start-up that runs the Kabaisercher on the Minett Trail 

 

The common theme of our second season this year is our travels along the Minett Trail. Two weeks before the official inauguration of the 90-kilometre trail through the eleven municipalities of the Minett UNESCO Biosphere, this podcast episode particularly focuses on the Minett Trail’s lodgings called “Kabaisercher”, located in eleven different places, which will all soon be open for booking. 

Our guest: Philippe Morgado

To reveal us more about the Kabaisercher, we invited the founder of Simpleviu, Philippe Morgado. His start-up won a bid to manage these tourist lodgings along the Minett Trail in early 2022. Simpleviu now works in close cooperation with the 11 municipalities where the Kabaisercher are located, the regional tourism office VisitMinett and other local partners. 

© Julie Collini

Philippe Morgado talked to us about his mechanical engineering and entrepreneurship studies and about his path into the tourism industry. We look back at hisfirst few months as the official operator of the Kabaisercher and take a look into the future of “slow tourism” (also) in Luxembourg. We also got chatting about the works of art within this particular Kabaiserchen, local legends and the industrial culture of Luxembourg’s south. 

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Our Minett Location of the month: Lasauvage 

The municipality of Differdange 

Lasauvage is a village in the municipality of Differdange and, with around 400 inhabitants, one of the smallest villages in the Minett UNESCO Biosphere. “Zowaasch”, as the village is called in Luxembourgish, developed from the 17th century onwards, after a first small steel mill opened in the valley of the Crosnière in 1623. The steelworks in Lasauvage was in operation until the 1870s. Since a railway line, connecting the remote valley of Lasauvage to the French border was rejected at that time, industrial production shifted to the neighbouring French town of Longwy. 

In Lasauvage, however, iron ore continued to play an important role. Minett was extracted from the mines around the village until 1978, and the remains of the mining activities still characterise the small village today. 

The municipality of Differdange, to which Lasauvage belongs, also consists of the city of Differdange and the towns of Oberkorn and Niederkorn. With its almost 30,000 inhabitants, Differdange is the third largest municipality in Luxembourg. Differdange is still an industrial city and its steelworks is still operating and exports its products worldwide. Parts of the steel mill that are no longer in operation have recently been converted into a “creative hub” where young creative businesses can start their activities. 

Kabaischen of the month: La Sauvage 

Our Kabaischen in April is called “La Sauvage”. The name comes from the legend of a wild woman who, before the village of Lasauvage was founded, is said to have roamed the valley of the Crosnière river. 

This relatively large lodging, located in an old miner’s house, has a total of 3 rooms and7 beds. The interior was built using the “box-in-a-box” system after the house was completely gutted. 

On the walls of this Kabaischen you can see large frescoes, made of clay, which have been created by the local artist Léa Schroeder. The artworks show both the legend of the “femme sauvage” and scenes from Lasauvage’s mining past. 

© Minett UNESCO Biosphere

Our quiz: 

A number of counting stations have been installed along the Minett Trail to automatically record the amount of hikers. One of those stations is located in the Ellergronn in Esch. How many people do you think were counted here in 2022?   

• 8.523  
• 155.874  
• 297.103

 

At the counting station in Lasauvage about 28,000 hikers of the Minett Trail were recorded during the same period. 

Where did the village of Lasauvage get its name from?   

• From a local legend of a wild woman 
• From the creek that crosses the village 
• From the wolves that used to live in the valley 

 

Links to the topics we talked about in  this episode: 

• Simpleviu: Philippe Morgado’s start-up that manages the Kabaisercher on the Minett Trail. 
• Master in Entrepeneurship and Innovation: Master’s programme of the University of Luxembourg. 
• Chambre de commerce: National organisation representing businesses from all sectors of the economy. 
• Best business plan award: Award by the Chambre de Commerce    that Philippe Morgado won in 2020. 
• Esch2022: In 2022, the city of Esch, together with the other 10 municipalities of the PRO-SUD syndicate in the South of Luxembourg and the 8 municipalities of the CCPHVA across the border in France, constituted the European Capital of Culture. 
• Mëllerdall: Tourist region in the East of Luxembourg. 
• Fond-de-Gras: Fromer iron ore mining site that has now become a large open-air museum. 
• Slow tourism: Trend in global tourism aimed at more sustainable travel. 
• Léa Schroeder: Artist from Differdange who made the frescoes in the Kabaischen „La Sauvage“. 
• History Vehicles Lasauvage: Annual vintage car meeting in Lasauvage. 
• Blues Express: Music festival of the municipality of Differdange, held every July in the Fond-de-Gras and Lasauvage. 
• Poppespënnchen: Puppet theatre in Lasauvage with a children’s and adult programme. 
• Minn Hondsbësch: mine between Niederkorn and Lasauvage where Luxembourg conscientious objectors hid from the Nazis during the Second World War. 
• Espace muséologique Lasauvage: museum dedicated to the history of Lasauvage and the fate of the conscientious objectors. 
• Musée Eugène Pesch: museum with a large collection of fossils found in the mines around Lasauvage. 
• Zowaascher Schmelz: one of the first ironworks in southern Luxembourg, closed at the end of the 19th century. Detailed articles published by Diffmag the magazine of the municipality of Differdange. 
• Salles des pendus Lasauvage: Well-preserved pithead changing rooms, which are now used to host exhibitions. 
• Sven Fielitz: Freestyle footballer who was a guest on our Minett Mash-Up Episode 5, recorded in the Salle des Pendus at Ellergronn in Esch. 
• Minièresbunn: mining train that runs between the Fond-de-Gras and Lasauvage through the disused mine on Sundays, from May until end of September. 
• Saint Barbara (Bärbel): patron saint of miners, to whom the church of Lasauvage was dedicated to and who is traditionally celebrated every year at the beginning of December. 
• The Joe Rogan Experience: podcast by the American comedian Joe Rogan. 
• Minetter Schof: Flock of wandering sheep grazing dry grasslands in the Minett UNESCO Biosphere. 
• Legend of Lasauvage: Sagenschatz des Luxemburger Landes by Nikolaus Gredt 

 

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