The Luxembourgish Grand Ducal Court has launched a new website, aimed at explaining the monarchy to children.
After a week of teasers on social media, 27 September saw the launch of the new platform, which coincided with kids getting settled into their new school year routines.
The platform is designed in a fairytale book style and is full of sounds that remind of cartoons about princesses.
It opens on a map of Luxembourg, where children can click on the three buildings belonging to the monarchy to discover their history: the Grand Ducal Palace, Berg Castle and Fischbach Castle.
In the lower-left corner, a cartoon version of Grand Duke Henri offers a welcome message and is intended to be the guide throughout the website.
Scrolling down on one of the three buildings’ pages, the website presents some of the most frequently asked questions about the Luxembourgish monarchy, like “What is a constitutional monarchy,” “Why a grand-duke and not a king,” and focus pieces on the people that run the institution, like the Marshall of the Court and the Honour Guard.
When opening the menu, there is also the possibility of being given a quiz about the various sections of the website, which include history, protocol and current affairs.
The website (kids.monarchie.lu) also offers the possibility of removing sounds and animations for children who have more trouble concentrating, as well as an option for changing the entire website into a dyslexia-friendly font.
According to the Grand Ducal Court, the website was created “to mimic a game” with the aim of capturing children’s attention in order to help them learn about their own country in a new, inclusive way.
Although nothing has been published on this topic, the website has the potential of being expanded to also offer downloadable learning materials for both schools and families, as well as, in the future, in-person tours of the three structures that are specifically tailored to children.
Luxembourg is not the first monarchy to launch a version of its website dedicated to children, as they are following in the footsteps of Belgium and Norway. Spain also runs a yearly contest called “What is a King for you?”, for which children of elementary school age present works of different kinds explaining what they think a monarch should do.
