Marsal (; ) is a commune in the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) 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 joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

department in

Grand Est Grand Est (; ) is an Regions of France, administrative region in northeastern France. It superseded three former administrative regions, Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, on 1 January 2016 under the provisional name of Alsace-Champagne-A ...

in north-eastern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Geography

Marsal is located on a marshy alluvial plain, surrounded by two branches of the Seille River. This old town on the ancient Roman road from

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

was marked by salt mining, emerging in the form of salt springs.

Toponymy

Marsal's name in

Roman times In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman civilisation from the founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingd ...

was Marosallum. The word Marosallum is a combination of two terms, one Gallic (maro) and the other

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

(sallum), which together mean approximately the Great

Saltworks A saltern is an area or installation for making salt. Salterns include modern salt-making works (saltworks), as well as hypersaline waters that usually contain high concentrations of halophilic microorganisms, primarily haloarchaea but also oth ...

History

Archaeological remains dating back to the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

have been discovered in the vicinity of Marsal. An urban agglomeration called Marosallum developed in early Roman times. Marosallum was a stop on the Roman road linking Metz (Divodurum) to Strasbourg (Argentorate). The ancient name of the town was shortened to Marsallum in Merovingian times. The town seems to have continued to derive its wealth from the salt works, as evidenced by the presence of a "place à sel" reported in 682 or 683. From the 11th century onwards, the

Bishopric of Metz Bishopric of Metz may refer to: *Roman Catholic Diocese of Metz The Diocese of Metz (; ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in France. In the Middle Ages it was a prince-bishopric of the Holy Roman Emp ...

and the

Duchy of Lorraine The Duchy of Lorraine was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire which existed from the 10th century until 1766 when it was annexed by the kingdom of France. It gave its name to the larger present-day region of Lorraine in northeastern France ...

fought over control of the region's saltworks. The chronicles of Richer de Senones mention the existence in the 13th century of a young woman, nicknamed the Sybille de Marsal, who was reputed to live without eating. Bishop Jacques de Lorraine and a number of priests and gentlemen who accompanied him were unable, despite several days of observation, to discover who was feeding her. On 2 September 1663

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

captured the town. Numerous documents testify to the capture of Marsal, such as a tapestry from the Gobelins called ''Réduction ou Reddition de Marsal'', which relates the handing over of the keys of the town to the king. The tapestry is based on a model by

Charles Le Brun Charles Le Brun (; baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French Painting, painter, Physiognomy, physiognomist, Aesthetics, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. He served as a court painter to Louis XIV, ...

Jean de La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French Fable, fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''La Fontaine's Fables, Fables'', which provided a model for subs ...

also wrote a

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

about the capture of Marsal. The king then entrusted the military engineer Vauban with the task of improving the fortifications. Marsal's Ancien Régime military cemetery is where the remains of several disabled veterans of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

and the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. During

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Marsal was bombed in 1915. Following the defeat of June 1940, Marsal was once again annexed to the

German Reich German ''Reich'' (, from ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty entirely from a continuing unitary German ''Volk'' ("na ...

. Most of the population was expelled and welcomed in the South of France. The village was not French again until 1945. In 1968, the "Mage de Marsal" affair hit the headlines: two of the six children of Maurice Gérard, known as "Swami Matkormano", the guru who runs an esoteric community in his large building, and Josiane Gérard, known as "the high priestess Alféola", mysteriously disappeared.

Culture and historical heritage

Sights and architecture

The Roman road that served Marosallum from opposite sides of the Seille valley. The Salt Museum (''Musée départemental du sel'') presents salt production techniques, from prehistory to the present day. La Porte de France (gate of France) was classified as a historic monument on 6 March 1928; dating back to 1663, the Notre-Dame gate defended the main access to Marsal and was extensively modified in the first half of the 17th century. Maison du gouverneur de la saline (the house of the saltworks' governor) was built in 1625 by Jean La Hiere, it was modified in the 18th century, abandoned during the French Revolution and rebuilt in 1823–1824. L'Arsenal was built in 1848, this 13-bay building, sold to private owners, has retained its original appearance. Le Pavillon de Bourgogne from 1666, is a former barrack which became the headquarters of the civil hospice in 1813, then a girls' school in 1889. Today, it has been converted into rental accommodation. La Place d'Armes was once home to the village's covered market, as well as the town hall and washhouse... Today, the square forms the center of the village, lined with notables' houses with 18th-century facades. File:Marsal, Porte de France.jpg, Porte de France File:Place d'armes (2).jpg, Place d'Armes

References

External links

* {{authority control Communes of Moselle (department) Vauban fortifications in France