49°11′13″N, 6°53′48″E. This town and commune with a population of 22,784 in 1999 is about 4 km from the German border and part of a vast urban locale "Forbach/Sarrebruck" with more than 700,000 inhabitants that includes several agglomerations of Moselle and neighbouring Saar, notably Sarrebruck (more than 360,000 inhabitants). The railway station of Forbach links Paris to Frankfurt. Bordering cities are Stiring-Wendel, Freyming-Merlebach, Cocheren, and Spicheren. When travelling by train between Germany and France, the station in Forbach is where Customs procedures were performed until the Schengen Treaty'and trains change from right-hand operation (Germany) to left-hand operation (France). Relics of Celtic and especially Roman epochs were found here. The name Forbach in German means a stream (Bach) near a forest (Forst). In Gallo-Roman times, the military highway from Metz to Mainz passed to the southeast of the forest of Warndt by the region of Forbach. This road probably favoured the development of the small town nestled at the bottom of the hill. The fortified castle was constructed on the hill of Schlossberg at the end of the 12th century and extended and linked by 1550 with the city by a surrounding wall. Between the 10th century and 1793, numerous lords held the seigniory of Forbach. The one sometimes called the German Rabelais, Johann Fischart, was prolific and satirical writer in the castle of Forbach from 1583 until 1590. The Thirty Years War was particularly painful and destructive in the region. The castle of Schlossberg and surrounding wall were dismantled in the course of this war--in 1635-- on the order of Richelieu. The Chapel was devastated at the same time. On January 4th, 1716, Swedish Baron Henning Von Stralenheim bought the seigniory. One year after, Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, established it as county by conferring on the Swedish Baron the title of Count de Forbach. Henning constructed Castle Barrabino, his new residence. To exploit the forest, main wealth of the county and assure the future of his second wife, Sophie de Wasaborg, he installed a new glassworks with his name. The line of railway between Metz and Forbach opened in 1851, junction with Sarrebruck one year later. And then, from the middle of the 19th century, three families marked the industrial development of the region and influenced local political, economic and social life. Wendel started the coal industry in Petite-Rosselle, then in Forbach and Stiring-Wendel where they develop the most powerful ironworks under the Second Empire but faltered after 1870. Couturier tile factories were during certain times the most important of Lorraine, then Germany. The family of Pierre Adt and their cardboard factories allowed Forbach to benefit from technological progress and architectural design: Tower of Schlossberg, Burghof, church Saint-Rémi and Castle Adt. This period is also marked by the Battle of Spicheren on August 6th, 1870 as a consequence of which Forbach will was appended in Germany until 1918. After 1918, Forbach's border functioned, but her military importance diminished due to the building of the Maginot Line. http://www.mairie-forbach.fr/ is the town's web site. [January 2008]
A Jewish cemetery has at least 400 graves. [January 2008]