Visited in 2018
Duration of visit : 2,5 hours
Pottery S
At the end of the 18th this pottery was established. It’s first years were difficult and in the 1800’s it got in the hands of a German man. At this time, the pottery was mainly focussed on ceramic tiles. In addition, decorative and ornamental pieces were made, as wel as crockery.
The following century the pottery stayed in the same family. Business was going well and from the 1850’s-1860’s two new steam-powered factories were built. The pottery was considered one of Europe’s larges pottery’s at the time. After the annexation of Lorraine to Germany in 1871 the pottery expanded to two new locations in France.
Around the 1980’s the factory got sold and the production of crockery stopped, tiling became the only product. The pottery had some difficult years and after some employees became shareholders in the 2000’s, the pottery came under their control. In the following years a large number of the employees had to leave and eventually in 2007 the pottery closed down.
Today, the factory halls are all empty, with all walls covered in grafitti. One smaller and older building has a hidden treasure inside: multiple floors stacked with old pottery molds. On the upper floors there was a track for a cart to transport the heavy molds over the floors. The many shelves filled with molds caused some parts to collapse under their immense weight.
