Sarreguemines

Sarreguemines grew at the meeting of the Saar and Blies, where a ford and roads made the site a natural crossing. A castle guarded the valley, and the town became the seat of a lordship belonging to the dukes of Lorraine. A charter in the fourteenth century gave its inhabitants municipal liberties. In 1790 three merchants from Strasbourg established a small faience workshop in an oil mill, beginning a pottery industry for which the town became known.