Rocca Tower

Giustina Rocca is considered to be the first female lawyer in history. Her name went down in history for an arbitration award made on 8 April 1500 in a dispute that had been entrusted to her to resolve. In the court of the Venetian governor of Trani, Giustina Rocca rendered her award in the vernacular – rather than in Latin, which was the custom of the time – so that the public who had come to hear it could understand it. She then called upon the unsuccessful party to pay her the customary fees, thus marking, at a time when women had no access to education or to the practice of law, her desire to be treated on equal terms with men vested with such powers.

By naming its highest tower after Giustina Rocca, the Court of Justice of the European Union emphasises the importance it attaches to law and justice being accessible to all and reaffirms, in line with its own case-law, its commitment to equal opportunities.

At 29 floors and standing 118 metres high, the Rocca Tower is the tallest building in Luxembourg. Although it is a single building, the exterior of the Rocca Tower looks like two adjoined towers.

As this tower is the last part of the building complex to be erected, its designers wanted to disrupt the continuity which began with the Comenius and Montesquieu towers, by placing the Rocca Tower at an angle as a sort of architectural ‘full stop’. Only one of the two façades is identical to the structure and dimensions of the Comenius and Montesquieu towers, while the other is black and slightly higher. The Rocca Tower is thus an integral part of the current site establishing an architectural dialogue with the Palais and the Comenius and Montesquieu Towers. Connections with the other buildings are ensured by the extension of the Gallery and the construction of a grand staircase reminiscent of that which connects the Gallery to the Palais.

The Rocca Tower enjoys state-of-the-art energy certification, equivalent to that of a passive building, with heating requirements that are 55% lower compared to the reference building, with primary energy consumption and CO_² emissions reduced by 45%.

The inauguration of the Rocca Tower in September 2019 brought all of the Court’s services together within a single building complex, uniting all staff and Members under one roof.