1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Saarlouis

SAARLOUIS, a town and former fortress of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine Province, situated in a fertile district on the left bank of the Saar, and on the railway from Saarbrücken to Trier, 40 m. S. of the latter. Pop. (1905) 8313. The town is well laid out and has spacious streets and a handsome market square. It contains a Roman Catholic and a Protestant church, a town hall, the walls of the council chamber in which are hung with Gobelins, the gift of Louis XIV., a classical school and a hospital. There are coal-mines in the vicinity, and the town has considerable manufactures of porcelain, enamel wares and leather, as well as a brisk trade in cattle and grain.

Saarlouis was founded in 1681 by Louis XIV. of France, and was fortified by Vauban in 1680-1685. By the peace of Paris, in 1815, it was ceded to the allies and by them was made over to Prussia. The fortifications were dismantled in 1889. Marshal Ney was born here. »

See Niessen, Geschichte des Kreises Saarlouis (Saarlouis, 1893 and 1897); and Baltzer, Historische Notizen über die Stadt Saarlouis (Trier, 1865).