Saar Canal

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saar Canal
Waters in Lorraine

Waters in Lorraine

Water code FR :  A9-0112
location France , Grand Est region
length 65 km
Built 1862-1866
class I ( Freycinet class )
Beginning Branch from the Canal de la Marne au Rhin near Gondrexange
The End Crossing into the canalised Saar near Sarreguemines
Descent structures 27
Ports Sarralbe , Sarreguemines
Used river Naubach, Saar
Kilometrage towards the Saar
Downhill towards the Saar
Saar Canal Lock 9.jpg
Lock No. 9. 2008 still manual operation
Lock number 1 in the Saar Canal
Lock at Harskirchen on the descent to the Saar valley

The Saar channel (formerly: Sarre Canal , French Canal des Houillères de la Sarre ) is a navigation canal , in the French region of Grand Est runs. It connects the Canal de la Marne au Rhin ( German : Rhine-Marne Canal ) with the canalised Saar . The industrial centers on the North Sea coast are connected via the Moselle and Rhine .

Course and technical infrastructure

The canal branches off at Gondrexange from the Canal de la Marne au Rhin at its apex in the Étang de Gondrexange ( German  Gunderchinger Weiher , 700 ha). This pond serves as a water reservoir for both canals. After passing lock No. 1 at Diane-Capelle , the canal crosses the Étang du Stock ( German  Stockweiher , 750 ha) on a dam , then it passes west of the Grand Étang de Mittersheim ( German  Mittersheimer Weiher , 1,097 ha). Both ponds originally served exclusively to supply the Saar Canal with water, but are now also used for tourism. Behind Mittersheim , the canal winds in three large arcs from the forest area down into the Saar Valley. Before reaching Sarralbe , it crosses the Albe river on a 45 meter long canal bridge . From Herbitzheim , the Saar Canal runs parallel to the Saar within sight. In Sarreguemines it flows into the canalised Saar after 65 kilometers.

In the upper section it is a canal of the connecting canal type , after reaching the Saar valley it is a side canal . It overcomes a height difference of 73 meters with the help of 27 locks, which are dimensioned for ships of the standard size Freycinet .

Coordinates

Crossed departments

Places on the canal

history

The basis for the construction of the Saar Canal was the State Treaty of 1861 between Prussia and France to create a navigable connection between the coal mines in the Saarbrücken area and the Rhine-Marne Canal, which was completed in 1853 . The canal was primarily intended to facilitate the transport of coal from the Prussian mines to Alsace and the interior of France, as well as the transport of iron ore from Lorraine to the smelting works on the Saar. The State Treaty of 1861 was implemented by channeling the Saar from Sarreguemines to Luisenthal and building a completely new canal between Sarreguemines and Gondrexange. The construction took place in the years 1862 to 1866 . After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the entire length of the canal came to the German Empire . The Prussian government had the canalization of the Saar extended by a further 17.5 km to Ensdorf between 1875 and 1879 .

Economical meaning

In its heyday from the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, the canal was mainly used to transport coal to the mountain and iron ore to the valley. Kleinblittersdorf, Luisenthal, Wehrden, Hostenbach and Ensdorf were used only little or not at all of the loading points created during the construction of the canal, and the entire coal shipments of the Saargruben later used the Malstatt port , which had also been connected to the railway from the outset. Iron ore was unloaded at the smelter unloading points in Brebach, Burbach and Völklingen. After the opening of the Sarreguemines – Sarrebourg railway in 1869, the transport of coal increasingly shifted to rail from 1873 and the importance of the canal for freight transport declined. Since the middle of the 20th century it has almost completely lost its importance for freight traffic. On the other hand, its importance for recreational boating with pleasure boats and houseboats has increased considerably since then. The canal runs through the Lorraine Regional Nature Park and mostly through forest and rural areas. Both route variants of the so-called Small Sauerkrauttour lead across the Saar Canal. The Saar Canal has been expanded specifically for tourism since around 2003. In Mittersheim, for example, a new leisure harbor with fresh water and electricity connections was built and berths for sport boats were set up in some places. Since 2005 work has been carried out on the automation of the previously manually operated locks.

Canal and cycle path network

As is common with the French canal network, the Saar Canal also became a prerequisite for a much-frequented cycle path. The towpath next to the canal has been upgraded to a mostly well-paved cycle path in recent years with funds from the European Union , the regional council and the municipalities . In Sarreguemines this cycle path is connected to the Saarland cycle path network:

  • to the north to the Saar cycle path , which accompanies the Saar to its confluence with the Moselle,
  • to the northeast on the Glan-Blies cycle path , which accompanies the Blies and Glan to the confluence with the Nahe near Staudernheim.

At Gondrexange there is a connection along the Rhine-Marne Canal to Strasbourg and in a westerly direction to the Moselle.

Web links

Commons : Saarkanal  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Movie

literature

  • Kurt Hoppstädter : The Saar as a waterway . In: Journal for the history of the Saar region , vol. 13, Saarbrücken 1963, pp. 9–82.
  • David Edwards-May: Inland waters of France , 5th edition, Verlag Edition Maritim, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-922117-61-9 .
  • Navicarte Guide de navigation fluvial - n ° 17 , March 2003, Edition Grafocarte, ISBN 2-7416-0161-5 .
  • Thomas Strauch: Saar-Coal Canal: ... - A Prussian-French joint project in the 19th century . Yearbook for the Bergmannskalender 2009, pp. 136–150, publisher: RAG Aktiengesellschaft.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The information on the length of the canal is based on the information on the Saar Canal from SANDRE (French), accessed on December 10, 2011, rounded to the nearest kilometer.
  2. ↑ Hoppstädter 1963, p. 49.
  3. ↑ Hoppstädter 1963, p. 55.
  4. ↑ Hoppstädter 1963, p. 54 f.
  5. ^ Cycle paths (Voies vertes) in France

See also