LUXEMBOURG — The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg doesn’t get a lot of turns in the spotlight.
It’s an independent country tinier than Rhode Island and it would fit inside Germany, its neighbor to the east, 138 times with room to spare.
It won no medals at the 2012 London Olympics — in fact it hasn’t won a medal at the Summer Games since 1952.
But this week is Luxembourg’s turn to shine. Prince Guillaume, the heir to the throne — the grand duke-to-be — will marry Belgian Countess Stephanie de Lannoy.
It will be a two-day affair, including fireworks, concerts, a gala dinner at the grand ducal palace, and two marriages between the betrothed — a civil wedding Friday afternoon and a religious ceremony Saturday morning.
A glittering array of European royalty has been invited.
The guest list for the religious ceremony includes kings, queens, princes and princesses from European countries, including, among others, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Liechtenstein, Denmark, the Netherlands, Romania and Britain, which is sending Prince Edward, Queen Elizabeth’s youngest child, and his wife, Sophie.
Non-European royalty will be attending, as well, from Morocco, Japan and Jordan and elsewhere.
With all those royals coming to Luxembourg, can international attention be far behind?
“It’s good for Luxembourg,” said Nadine Chenet, a 46-year-old street cleaner who was picking up cigarette butts with pincers in front of the grand ducal palace. “Many people will come now.”
Besides, she just plain likes the royal family, she said, because they give a good impression of the country.
That’s a sentiment common in Luxembourg. To all appearances, the bride and groom are a lovely couple.
He is 30, with dark hair and an immaculate beard. She is 28, blonde and smiling. In public appearances, including at the London Olympics, they have appeared besotted with each other.
According to biographies distributed by the royal court, each has an array of interests befitting those who are to the manner born.
Guillaume speaks four languages, has studied international politics, is a lieutenant colonel in the Luxembourg army (a force of 900 soldiers), and has been engaged in humanitarian work in other countries, including Nepal.
The duchess-to-be has studied the influence of German romanticism on Russian romanticism, plays piano and violin, swims, skis, and says she reads three books at a time.
In the language department, she already speaks French and German — two of Luxembourg’s three official languages — and, perhaps more important, is studying the third, which is called Luxembourgish. She plans to renounce her Belgian citizenship in order to become, eventually, Luxembourg’s grand duchess.
Luxembourg is a linguistically complicated country, a reflection of its complicated past. It began as a Roman fortress. It has, at one time or another, fallen under the control of Spain, France and Austria.
In 1839, it gained its independence from the Netherlands, but lost more than half its territory to Belgium, which now has a province of the same name.
In the 20th century, Germany swept through Luxembourg twice despite its protestations of neutrality.
Luxembourg, an important financial center and home to the world’s largest steel manufacturer, continues to prosper despite Europe’s economic trouble.
The country has the second-highest gross domestic product per capita in the world, more than $80,000 — though its population of about 510,000 people is still smarting from having lost the No. 1 spot to Qatar. The capital city has 80,000 inhabitants and 120,000 jobs.
For that reason, more than 43 percent of the people in Luxembourg are foreign nationals, compared to a European Union average of 6.4 percent.
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