Vic-sur-Seille

Vic-sur-Seille grew among the marshes of the Seille, where salt was extracted from an early date. The bishops of Metz fortified the town and its saltworks with a castle. When disputes with the citizens of Metz drove them elsewhere, Vic became the administrative centre of their temporal lordship in the fourteenth century.

Although salt production at Vic ceased in the early fourteenth century, the bishops' officials and artisans sustained the town, and bishops in the fifteenth century strengthened its administrative role. It flourished between 1590 and 1630, the birthplace of the painter Georges de La Tour in 1593. French troops occupied Vic in 1631, and the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 transferred the bishops' temporal possessions to France. The bailliage thereafter came under the Parlement of Metz.