Moselle
The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...
Grand Est
Grand Est (; gsw-FR, Grossa Oschta; Moselle Franconian/ lb, Grouss Osten;
Rhine Franconian: ''Groß Oschte''; german: Großer Osten ; en, "Great East") is an administrative region in Northeastern France. It superseded three former administ ...
in northeastern
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
.
Location and rail links
Audun-le-Tiche is located adjacent to
Esch-sur-Alzette
Esch-sur-Alzette (; lb, Esch-Uelzecht ; german: Esch an der Alzette or ''Esch an der Alzig'') is the second city of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the country's second-most populous commune, with a population of 35,040 inhabitants, . It lie ...
, on the border with
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small land ...
, and close to the borders of
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
, and
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
.
Audun-le-Tiche is served by a railway station that is served by both the French national railway and the Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois, on whose
Line 60 Line 60 is a railway line connecting Luxembourg City to the Red Lands of the south of Luxembourg, and on to France. The terminus at the northern end is Luxembourg railway station, whilst the terminals at the south are Rumelange, Pétange, and t ...
it is located.
History
The name Audun comes from ''Awedeux'', as a phonetical evolution of Latin ''Aquaeducta'', and le Tiche is an evolution of ''Thieux'', meaning "the German" — cf. ''Deutsch''. The corresponding town Audun-le-Roman lies in the former Romance, or Latin-speaking area, where Audun-le-Tiche is the other side of the
language border
A language border or language boundary is the line separating two language areas. The term is generally meant to imply a lack of mutual intelligibility between the two languages. If two adjacent languages or dialects are mutually intelligible, no ...
, in the Germanic-speaking area. Nowadays, these two cities are respectively named ''Deutsch-Oth'' and ''Welsch-Oth'' in German.
The town was long associated with the mining industry. The history of mining in Audun-le-Tiche and its decline has been described in the writings of Aurélie Filippetti.Aurélie Filippetti, 'Les derniers jours de la classe ouvrière', Éditions Stock, 2003
The Villeroy & Boch ceramic manufacturing company was founded in 1748 in Audun by
François Boch
Villeroy & Boch (, ) is a German manufacturer of ceramics, with the company headquarters located in Mettlach, Saarland.
History
The company began in the tiny Lorraine village of Audun le Tiche, where the iron master François Boch set up a pot ...
. The company headquarter later moved to nearby
Luxembourg
Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small land ...
, and in 1801 to
Mettlach
Mettlach (Saarlandic dialect:Mettlich) is a municipality in the district Merzig-Wadern, in Saarland, Germany, situated on the river Saar, approximately northwest of Merzig, and south of Trier
Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in En ...
, Germany.
Audun sister town is
Gualdo Tadino
Gualdo Tadino (Latin: ''Tadinum'') is an ancient town of Italy, in the province of Perugia in northeastern Umbria, on the lower flanks of Monte Penna, a mountain of the Apennines. It is NE of Perugia.
History
Gualdo has a long history and was o ...
in Italy, from which immigrants came working in mining industry during the 19th century.