1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pont-à-Mousson

PONT-À-MOUSSON, a town of northern France in the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, 17 m. N.N.W. of Nancy by rail. Pop. (1906), 12,282. The Moselle, which is canalized, divides the town into two quarters, united by a bridge of the late 16th century. The church of St Martin, dating from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, has a handsome façade with two towers, and in the interior a choir screen and Holy Sepulchre of the 15th century. The lower ecclesiastical seminary occupies the building of an old Premonstratensian convent. There are several interesting old houses. The town has a communal college and engineering workshops, blast furnaces, and manufactures of lacquered ware, paper, cardboard, cables and iron-ware. Dating from the 9th or 10th century, Pont-à-Mousson constituted a lordship, which was made a marquis ate in 1354. It was from 1572 to 1763 the seat of a well-known university.