The city's former spectacular fortress still defines the hexagonal layout of the city center today. In Saarlouis, the past is alive at every turn. Many stone witnesses remind of the city's founder, Louis XIV, and his famous master builder Vauban.
The fortress "Sarre-Louis" was built from 1680 at the behest of Louis XIV to secure the occupied Lorraine territories. Based on the plans of Thomas de Choisy and the great builder Sébastien le Prestre de Vauban, an almost regular fortification with six bastions was built.
The strict geometric layout of the fortress and the town that grew up within its walls is the result of a combination of military-technical considerations and the architectural ideals of the Baroque period of an aesthetically beautiful and functional town.
Visit the historical casemates and many other buildings worth seeing from the French and Prussian times in the fortified city of Saarlouis!