KEY POINTS:
Think of Luxembourg and what do you see? Banks, lots of banks? Whey-faced bureaucrats working for the European Union? A Ruritania, whose prim parishioners are able to spot a sin before its committed?
Well, a year from now, your grey-tinged view of the capital of the Grand Duchy
may have been swept away.
If a €58 million ($111.5 million) bet comes off, Luxembourg will shrug off its dreary reputation as a tax haven where balding Belgian dentists stash their loot after a lifetime of drilling and filling.
Instead, the city will be reborn as a vibrant, even funky place to be.
The forces behind this unlikely rebranding are artists, actors, singers, musicians and architects - a grand ensemble of talent that has been hired in Luxembourg's year as the European Capital of Culture.
Launched in 1985, the initiative began as a simple showcase for European culture, but has snowballed into a truly massive undertaking.
Like the hosting of the Olympic Games, an obscure or sidelined city that becomes the European Union's Capital of Culture places itself firmly centre-stage.
It can win huge investment and subsidies from central government and the EU to regenerate downtrodden areas, as well as generous sponsorship from big business. It can earn hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from high-spending visitors. But it can also create that priceless asset called self-confidence.
Was it worth it?
"Absolutely, it was worthwhile," says Liz Meaney, a councillor in the Irish city of Cork, which was Capital of Culture two years ago.
"Outside the country, it really puts you on the map. People travel long distances for cultural events - some go to every cultural capital every year.
"A number of the 2005 events are still running here and some will continue every year.
"The benefits flow through the hospitality industry and cultural centres."
The first culture capitals were safe choices, such as Athens, Florence, Amsterdam and Paris, all treasure troves of architecture and museums.
The turning point, though, came when Glasgow was named culture capital for 1990. Many eyebrows were raised, given that city's image of violence and bleak decay.
But the money flowed in and the shirtsleeves were rolled up. Glasgow's soot-begrimed granite buildings were cleaned up and found to be architectural jewels.
A new music venue, the Royal Concert Hall, and a new Museum of Education were added to the city skyline. Plays, operas and ballets, rock bands, Highland dancing, poetry reading - hundreds of events - were added to the year's cultural agenda.
In 1990, sales of theatre tickets rose by 40 per cent, and the number of foreign visitors by 50 per cent. More than £14 million ($39.6 million) flowed into the regional economy and nearly 6000 jobs were generated in 1990 alone, according to the city's statistics.
There were long-term benefits, too. With a refurbished exhibition centre, Glasgow is now a major conference venue and Britain's third most visited city after London and Edinburgh.
Liverpool hopes it can emulate Glasgow's success in 2008.
Befitting its huge wealth - Luxembourg has the highest per capita income of the EU - the Grand Duchy has expensive ambitions. It has set aside £30 million for this year's exercise, supplemented by £75 million from corporate and EU support.
Just 12 years ago, Luxembourg had only a single museum, a building with a small-town exhibition of art and history and pressure from the local clergy prompted the authorities to cover an erotic statue by the artist Nikki de Saint-Phalle.
Last year, it unveiled a gleaming museum of steel and glass, the Grand Duke Jean Museum, known as the Mudam, designed by the star Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei. It now has 230 works of art, with more added by the month.
Luxembourg also boasts a museum of avant-garde art, the Casino; a sumptuous concert Hall, the Philharmonie; the Grand Theatre, for hosting opera and ballet; and a huge converted abbey, with 12,000 sq m of space, designed as a meeting point of cultures.
A city notorious for its conservatism and high cost of living, it has set up a subsidised block for artists, a complex bizarrely called Le Criminel, where creative types can live, work and mingle.
"Luxembourg is more than just 120 banks," Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker declared as he gave the ceremonial start to the culture year last December. That's a claim, some would say, that outstrips Glasgow's or even Liverpool's for audacity.
