Freyming et Merlebach

Freyming and Merlebach had an identical fate. Both were founded at the same time, around 1590 for Merlebach, in 1602 for Freyming. Nowhere else did the mining activities have such a dramatic impact on town planning. Not only did large cities settle on their outskirts, but the two modest villages changed their face completely.
The commune was born from the merger in 1971 of the two mining towns. Numerous Gallo-Roman remains have been found on the current ban of Freyming and away from Sainte-Fontaine, on the site of a temple dedicated to the deities of the waters. The village of Freyming was created in 1602 by the Counts of Créhange and ceded to France in 1781 by the Le Leyens, following a treaty of exchange. Merlebach originates from a village of glassmakers, mentioned as early as 1590 and established on the banks of the river Merle. But it was mining that made the fortune of the commune. The town offers some very good examples of the different generations of workers' towns... Those who love imitations of baroque art should stop at the church of St. Maurice de Freyming... The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Merlebach is also neo-baroque (1926). The Chapel City, the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, erected in 1755 on the old Roman road, was a popular place of pilgrimage until the beginning of the 20th century. Also to be seen in Merlebach, rue du Rocher, a megalithic stone, the Wieselstein, below the monument to the dead of the Reumaux shaft disaster (1925), the rupture of a cable had caused the death of fifty-one miners, 3 months after the beginning of the exploitation of this siege.