Sarrebourg over time

Depart from the town of Sarrebourg, latitude 48.7354300 (N 48° 44’ 8”), longitude 7.0531600 (E 7° 3’ 11”)

The Place des Cordeliers is undoubtedly the heart of the medieval city. There was the parish church (before the construction of the Collegiate Church of St. Stephen) and the castle of Duke Bliescastel. The latter built in 1265 the convent of the Cordeliers. The church was enlarged and became the convent's chapel.
In the 16th century, the convent and the chapel underwent many vicissitudes. The chapel was restored once in the early seventeenth century and after the Revolution in 1792, the convent was converted into barracks and the church in stables. It was only after the annexation (1870) that part of the building was temporarily returned to worship as a Protestant temple of the garrison.
After 1927, he became local of the Society of History and Archeology which made it his museum. In 1970, it was decided to keep only the choir of the chapel; the rest of the building threatening ruin was destroyed.
To close the choir, former Prime Minister Pierre Messmer, then Mayor of Sarrebourg obtained from Marc Chagall the realization of his largest stained glass window. It is an exceptional work because it is part of the entire arch of the nave, where the choir ends. Large in size, 12 meters high and 7 meters 50 wide, the stained glass is even more so with the theme: Peace.

This building built in 1912 belongs to the Art Nouveau trend. The latter is an international movement that takes a specific coloring in contact with each given cultural situation. As a result, innumerable names and nicknames were given to him in different countries: Modern style in France, Jugendstil in Germany, Tiffany style in the United States.
The cinema belongs to Viennese Secessionstil. This gives the straight line and bare surfaces a particular function despite the predilection of Art Nouveau for curved lines and plant and floral elements.

In the Middle Ages, the city was entirely surrounded by ramparts. These fortifications were erected by Jean d'Apremont, then by Jacques de Lorraine, bishops of Metz, circa 1256. The rampart, with a perimeter of 1670 meters, was flanked by twenty-eight towers.
Today, there are elements of the ramparts at the top of the Park of Liberty. Before these are stelae-houses, Roman funerary monuments, from the cemetery of Freiwald (common Troisfontaines). One of them has an inscription.
The walker can stroll in the rue du Postillon and look at the houses that have kept their medieval character.

This is the most prestigious monument left by the eighteenth century in Sarrebourg. Built by Marie-Joseph-Maurice de Saintignon (1727-1806), this hotel now houses the municipal library for which a wing was added. At the origin of rectangular plan, it had two short wings on the garden side (one of them was extended in the German era).
The windows, arranged on two floors are decorated with staples shaped asymmetrical shells. The entrance door is surmounted by a medallion rock style. The sobriety of the building contrasts with the monumental portal. Two fluted pilasters support a rounded pediment adorned with a Rocaille style medallion. On each side, two lions overhang the pedestrian doors. Today, the portal is closed by a grid of Sandor Kiss which fits very well with the eighteenth architecture. In the courtyard, you can see a pretty fountain, also rock style.

This imposing 17th century building (next to the police station) with a double flight staircase and stone banisters was formerly owned by Count de Custine, lord of Niderviller.

Shopping artery, the Grand'rue has beautiful facades of the eighteenth, whose windows, decorated with staples and braces are the most characteristic elements. We will notice how much the architecture of the nineteenth and early twentieth century was able to integrate into this architectural ensemble.

The Saint-Barthélemy church, former Saint-Etienne collegiate church, was built at the beginning of the 13th century. From this monument only remains the north tower with its arcades and carved heads. During the reconstruction of the church in the eighteenth century, Gallo-Roman remains have been uncovered.
In the interior of the present church are preserved some very rare gothic stalls, from the Cordeliers church, the woodwork and part of the chair of the sculptor from Sarrebourg Dominique Labroise, a virgin XVI century and paintings XIXth century including Ecclesia fundata due to the painter Charles Dugasseau, student of Ingres. In front of the church, the houses, almost all of the eighteenth century, draw a harmonious arch.

The Saarland has always played a leading role in the economic activity of the city since Roman times. In the Middle Ages, many artisans were established along the river. From Antiquity to the nineteenth century, wood was transported from the mountain by the Saar. We must imagine the spectacle of the floats driving the wooden trains with their pikes to Holland.

The railway arrives at Sarrebourg in 1852. The station was then at the entrance of the city, in the district of the Avenue de France. The project to build a new station was born in 1909. Work began in 1911. Not interrupted the first world war, they were completed in 1923. The station then becomes the center of gravity of a new neighborhood that, thanks to streets of the Station and the Post Office, fully integrates with the old city. The station building is neoclassical.
In the square, the "master hand" in bronze is the work of Jean Cardot.

Hikes & walks in Sarrebourg