Located on the Nancy-Metz axis, and crossed by the Moselle, the Pont-à-Mousson basin opens the doors to the Lorraine Natural Regional Park and offers up its natural, historical and cultural treasures, for a guaranteed change of scenery. From the industrial traces of the past, to the advanced technologies of today, the basin is highly versatile. The Pont-à-Mousson basin is located an hour and a half away from Paris by train, and 45 minutes from Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany on the A 31 motorway.
Discover it all: from bricks that bore witness to the wars, meTdieval castles you can still visit to this day, the Prémontrés Abbey that is the heart and joy of this land, ancestral artisan crafts and skills, and a gastronomy that entices many tourists from Paris, Germany or Benelux !
Located on the Nancy-Metz axis, and crossed by the Moselle, the Pont-à-Mousson basin opens the doors to the Lorraine Natural Regional Park and offers up its natural, historical and cultural treasures, for a guaranteed change of scenery. From the industrial traces of the past, to the advanced technologies of today, the basin is highly versatile. The Pont-à-Mousson basin is located an hour and a half away from Paris by train, and 45 minutes from Luxembourg, Belgium and Germany on the A 31 motorway.
Nature
Discover unique natural sites in preserved lands and sensitive spaces, and their protected biodiversity to the west of Pont-à-Mousson, by entering the Lorraine Natural Regional Park and travelling down its many different paths: there’s bound to be one for you! The hikes and trails at the heart of the Petite Suisse Lorraine will introduce you to the many natural sites the area has to offer, each more beautiful than the last.
The Ile d’Esch, lovingly embraced by the Moselle river, has become a favorite walking spot for the many tourists that come to Pont-à-Mousson to make the most of the sports complexes, cycle paths or picnic spots the river banks have to offer.
History
From walls that witnessed the wars, medieval castles you can still visit to this day, the Prémontrés Abbey that is the heart and joy of this land, ancestral artisan crafts and skills, and a gastronomy that entices many tourists from Paris, Germany or Benelux !
Heritage tourism: the land still bears the marks of the violent fights of the First World War, and has had to heal the wounds of the Second. Uncover all of its secrets.
The name of the town
It embodies the origins of the town: a bridge crossing over the Moselle as early as the XIth century at the foot of the Mousson fortress, home to the counts of Bar. Developed first on the right bank of the river, around a hospital-monastery or Maison-Dieu dating back to 1217, the town was entrusted to the Antonines and became known as the “town of the Saint Anthony bridge”.
Thiébaut II, twelfth count of Mousson, is the one to thank for the extension of the town on the left bank of the Moselle: the letters of emancipation of the town date back to 1261. In 1354, the Emperor Charles IV of Bohemia elevated the town to a marquisate and in 1372 it became a City of the Empire.
Enclosed within its fortifications, Pont à Mousson developed into an economic centre with numerous corporations, Lombard bankers and neighbourhood fairs on the left bank of the river: Saint Jean and Saint Laurent.
A University city (1572-1768)
December 5, 1572, Pope Gregory XIII erects the Pont-à-Mousson University at the demand of the Duke of Lorraine, Charles III, and his cousin the Cardinal Charles of Lorraine, who had an eminent role at the Council of Trent.
The University was then handed over to the Jesuits and for over two centuries, Pont-à-Mousson was the bastion of the catholic faith in the Empire. Four faculties (arts, theology, law and medicine), and four seminaries (including the Scottish seminary that was founded by Mary, Queen of Scots) competed for the prestige of the University, that at the start of the XVII th century counted 2000 students from all of Europe.
Centre of intense spiritual life, the university is at the origin of the reforms of the major religious orders: Premonstratensian, Benedictine, Canon regular and Carmelite. More religious orders settle down making Pont-à-Mousson a “covent-town”.
The Thirty Years’ War decimated the Lorraine region and severely affected the prosperity of the town and of the University. The latter was transferred to Nancy in 1768 by order of Louis XV, two years after the annexation of the Lorraine region to France.
The royal military school
Implemented by Louis XVI to compensate for the loss of the University, the Royal Military School was short-lived. But during its short existence the school formed illustrious military figures. Amongst them, Géraud-Christophe de Michel du Roc (Duroc), Duke of Frioul, Grand Marshal of the Palace of the Emperor Napoleon (mortally wounded in Saxony May 22 1813), and Jean-Charles Fabvier, lieutenant general and Peer of France, liberator of Athens from the yoke of the Turks, hero of the Greek independence.
The renewal of the 19th century
The renewal of the town during the 19th century was due to the industrial expansion, boosted by the implementation of the railways in 1850. The discovery of the iron mineral in 1856 led to the creation of blast furnaces and foundries in Pont-à-Mousson: the foundries started off producing cast iron mouldings, before specialising in pipes from 1886.
The new director, a mussipontain (inhabitant of Pont-à-Mousson), Camille Cavallier, pushed the Pont-à-Mousson factory into an unprecedented development that gave the town its international reputation (centrifugation and ductile iron). The profile of Pont-à-Mousson progressively changed and the fourteen convents that were secularised and then sold during the Revolution disappeared. Only the Abbey, appointed to the seminary of the Diocese in 1817, survived.
Pont-à-Mousson : a border town
The Frankfurt treaty that put an end to the war of 1870 made Pont-à-Mousson into a border town, and so gave the town a military role. The barracks filled with hussars, dragoons, and infantry. Even now, the town remembers lieutenant Charles de Foucauld and lieutenant de Lattre de Tassigny.
The ADT
After the Franco-german war of 1870, and the annexation of Lorraine to the Prussian Empire, Pont-à-Mousson became the home of many industries that came from neighbouring countries. Pierre Adt, son of an industrial family from the Saar, and the former mayor of Forbach, founded in Pont-à-Mousson a lacquered cardboard factory that would have the monopoly of “paper mache” in France. During the same time, the Pont-à-Mousson printery, opened in 1849, developed with artists like Fagonde or editors coming from Metz (Haguenthal, Vagné) and remained open until 1914.
The wars
The wars had a profound impact on the town. The First World War placed Pont-à-Mousson at the heart of the fighting, between the Saillant de Saint Mihiel battlefield and the Grand Couronné. The Bois le Prêtre forest (15 000 killed in 1915), the Croix des Carmes, the Xon, are all areas that were in the thick of the violent fighting that took place around the town.
The Second Word War was no less destructive: the bombings from June 1940 to September 1944 greatly damaged the cultural heritage of Pont-à-Mousson; the battle for the Crossing of the Moselle by the Patton army destroyed a majority of the right bank of the river, and displaced most of its inhabitants.
Nowadays
Nowadays, the wounds left by the wars have healed; monuments have been restored to their former glory. The Prémontrés Abbey has become a cultural and congress centre, but also a hotel complex that welcomes seminars, conventions, regional, national and international colloquiums. The former university has salvaged the Renaissance flair of its courtyard and now houses a school complex named after Jacques Marquette, the discoverer of the Mississippi. The combined high school and vocational school is named after Jean Appier Hanzelet, the famous engraver for the Dukes of Lorraine.
