Mouzon "petite cité de caractère"

Mouzon retains a heritage inherited from its role as a frontier town and its industrial vocation attached to wool felt. Situated in the Grand Est region, in the Ardennes department, Mouzon is at the gateway to Lorraine, Belgium and Luxembourg. Mouzon takes its name from Mosomagos, "market on the Meuse" in Celtic. As early as the 10th century, a powerful Benedictine abbey animated the town for nearly four centuries. Its abbey church (12th and 13th centuries) is a masterpiece of the early Gothic age. Then, the buildings of defense succeed one another. Of the first stone enclosure, only the remarkable Tour Porte de Bourgogne (12th century) remains. The town was besieged several times before the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) moved the national defences further north and the fortifications of Mouzon were dismantled (1673). Industry then develops: tanneries and mills, textiles and metallurgy. In 1783, a first wheat mill was transformed into a fouerie, then Alfred Sommer founded the Mouzon factory in 1881, whose production evolved towards felt. Mouzon then constitutes one of the most important felt factories in Europe. This know-how has never ceased to evolve and can be discovered today in the Musée-atelier du Feutre. Mouzon has retained a certain spirit, a character, which can be felt when wandering through its narrow streets, sailing on the Meuse ... or dipping your hands in the wool.