Pont-à-Mousson

Pont-à-Mousson (French pronunciation: ​[pɔ̃.ta.mu.sɔ̃]) is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.

Population (1999): 14,592 (Mussipontains). It is an industrial town (mainly steel industry), situated on the Moselle River. Pont-à-Mousson has several historical monuments, including the 18th century Premonstratensian abbey.

Demographics

History

Early Modern

In 1572 Cardinal Charles of Lorraine established a Jesuit university at Pont-à-Mousson. With the Protestant revolution building in the German-speaking lands, still part of the Holy Roman Empire, directly to the east, and the Duchy of Lorraine vulnerable to pressure from an increasingly assertive French state directly to the west, the Duchy particupated in the wars of religion on the side of the Counter-Reformation. The Tridentine strategy promulgated by the Holy See involved the creation of a "Roman Catholic backbone" (sometimes termsed the Lotharingian axis from the territories, including Lorraine, between France and the Habsburg Empire.

Mousson

Mousson is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.

See also