Metamorphosis of a site.
Once a shining example of Sarreguem's faience-making expertise, and more recently a symbol of the economic difficulties associated with globalization, today it's an industrial wasteland, the focus of much attention.
Factory no. 4 closed its doors for good in 2007, after more than 130 years as the heartbeat of local industrial life.
At the end of the Second World War, the site, which until then had been one of several factories in the town, became the only production site.
Two further milestones - the buyout of the factory by a long-standing competitor in 1978 and the end of tableware production in 1984. The year 2007 marks the end of a life devoted to industry, and paves the way for future rehabilitation.
Discover the history of this site of many lives.
The Musée de la Faïence will retrace the history of the site, particularly between 1939 and 2007: artistic and technical innovations, the changing layout of the workshops, management's strategy to consolidate its position on the world market while keeping production costs under control, and more.
Numerous documents - including some never-before-seen archival sources - will illustrate the changes that the site has undergone over the course of the XX¿ century (plans, archival photographs, diaries kept by the Faïencerie director, etc.) and their consequences on the production of decorative objects, tableware or even tiles
The end of the industrial adventure... and the beginning of a new life!
At the Moulin de la Blies, the exhibition is more contemporary, evoking the life of factory n°4 since its closure. A hotbed of artistic expression and urban exploration (URBEX), the site has been widely visited, despite the fact that it is forbidden to enter due to the presence of hazards. Graffiti artists from the Greater Region have left behind them - often ephemeral - evidence of their passing. The Museums team wanted to highlight this creativity.
The work to clean up the site, which began in 2024, led to the destruction of many of the graffiti, as well as a number of buildings that had become dilapidated or even dangerous over time. Which structures were preserved? On what criteria? The exhibition will take you behind the scenes, with aerial views and archive documents.
Finally, the last part of the exhibition will present the objects found during the demolition work and carefully preserved by the Museums' scientific team: earthenware whose production process was abruptly interrupted at various stages of completion, and which thus met with a different fate, but also some far more unusual objects...
How to get there ?