Industry
INDUSTRY was introduced in Vianden with the first Luxemburg’s blast furnace that William the Silent had built there by specialists from Siegen in 1564. But already in 1566 this blast furnace, which stood on the site of the present cemetery of Vianden, stopped working, when Philip II, King of Spain, confiscated the County of Vianden. Later the heirs of William the Silent were given back the County of Vianden, but the blast furnace of Vianden and the foundry of Koerperich hat stopped working for good.
Thus the inhabitants of Vianden went about their trades as before. Only two centuries later, did David May establish a drapery in the buildings of the ancient Trinitarian Monastery, which had been abolished by Joseph II in 1783. Around 1830, the tanners got organized on an industrial basis and before long the Prussian wars against Denmark, Austria and France gave a new rise to the tannery of Vianden.
World War I brought new orders and led to the founding of two important societies: "Tannerie de Vianden» (1914) and "Tannerie Ardennaise» (1920). World War II boosted the production of the tanneries, but caused death and ruins in the little town. Numerous inhabitants of Vianden lost their lives on the battlefields or in concentration camps.
On 11th September 1944 the first allied soldiers set food on German territory in Stolzembourg near Vianden. Two months later, the " Battle of the Ardennes» badly damaged Vianden, which was the last Luxemburg’s town to be liberated on 12th February 1945.
When the tanneries stopped their production in 1955.
The Sanatorium, on the heights dominating the town, was put into operation in 1931. There was room for some 150 patients ill with tuberculosis, which was cured according to the most advanced methods. The rate of such patients having decreased, the sanatorium has been transformed into a nursing home.