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Rh at Konz. Its length is 143 m. The middle part of its valley is an important industrial district, with coal-mines and a variety of manufactures; the Saar wines are also well known. The principal towns on the Saar are Saargemünd, Saarbrücken and St Johann (which face each other across the river), Saarlouis and Saarburg. The river is navigable up to Saargemünd, a distance of 75 m. From here there is connexion with the Rhine-Marne canal by way of the Saar canal, built in 1862, and 40 m. in length, following the Saar valley upwards for about half that distance.

SAARBRÜCKEN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine Province, on the left bank of the Saar, a navigable tributary of the Mosel, is situated 49 m. by rail N.E. of Metz, at the south end of one of the most extensive coal-fields in Europe, to which it has given its name. Pop. (1885) 10,453; (1905) 26,944. With the towns of St ]ohann, immediately opposite on the right bank of the river, and Malstatt-Burbach, Saarbrücken forms a single community, the three places having been united in 1909. Saarbrücken has four Protestant churches, a Roman Catholic and an Old Catholic church, and a town hall adorned with paintings by Anton von Werner, illustrating episodes of the war of 187O. Other buildings are the castle, until 1793 the residence of the princes of the house of Nassau-Saarbrücken; a gymnasium, founded in 1615, and a celebrated mining academy. The industries of St Johann-Saarbrücken include wool-spinning, brewing, and the manufacture of leather, tobacco, chemicals and iron wares. The trade is chiefly connected with the produce of the neighbouring coal-mines and that of the numerous important iron and glass works of the district. The Saarbrücken coal-fields extend over 70 sq. m., are estimated to yield about 10,000,000 tons annually, and give employment to nearly 50,000 men.

Saarbrücken owes its name to a bridge which existed in Roman times. Its early lords were the bishops of Metz, the counts of the lower Saargau, and the counts of the Ardennes. From 1381 to 1793 it belonged to the counts of Nassau-Saarbrücken, and then, after having been in the possession of France from 1801 to 1815, it passed to Prussia. In the Franco-Prussian War Saarbrücken was seized by the French on the 2nd of August 1870, but the first German victory on the heights of Spicheren, 3 m. to the south, relieved it four days later.

See Köllner, Geschichte der Städte Saarbrücken und St Johann (Saarbrücken, 1865); Ruppersberg, Geschichte der ehemaligen Grafschaft Saarbrücken (Saarbrücken, 1899-1903); and H. Kniebe, Bilder aus Saarbrückens Vergangenheit (Saarbrücken, 1894).

SAARBURG, a town of Germany, in the imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine, on the Saar, 44 m. N.W. from Strassburg by rail. Pop. (1905) 9818. Its chief industries are the manufacture of watch springs, gloves, lace, beer and machinery, and it has a trade in grain. Saarburg, which has been identified with the Pons Saravi of the Romans, belonged to France from 1661 to 1871, its earlier owners having been the bishops of Metz and the dukes of Lorraine.

Another Saarburg is a town in Prussia at the confluence of the Saar and the Leuk. Pop. (1905) 2186. It has the ruins of a castle, formerly belonging to the electors of Trier, and is still partly surrounded by walls. It has manufactures of bells, furniture and cigars, other industries being tanning and vine-growing. Saarburg dates from the 10th century and received municipal rights in 1291. From 1036 until 1727, when it passed into the possession of France, it belonged to the electors of Trier. It became Prussian in 1815.

See Hewer, Geschichte der Burg und Stadt Saarburg (Trier, 1862).

SAARGEMÜND (Fr. Sarreguemines), a town of Germany, in the imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine, situated at the confluence of the Blies and the Saar, 40 m. E. of Metz, 60 m. N.W. of Strassburg by rail, and at the junction of lines to Trier and Saarburg. Pop. (1905) 14,932. It carries on considerable manufactures of faience, plush, velvet, leather, porcelain and earthenware, and is a chief depot for the papier-maché boxes, mostly snuff-boxes, which are made in great quantities in the neighbourhood.

Saargemünd, originally a Roman settlement, obtained civic rights early in the 13th century. In 1297 it was ceded by the count of Saarbrücken to the duke of Lorraine, and passed with Lorraine in 1766 to France, being transferred to Germany in 1871.

See Thomire, Notes historiques sur Sarreguemines (Strassburg, 1887); and Box, Notice sur le pays de la Saare (Nancy, 1903).

SAARLOUIS, a town and former fortress of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine Province, situated in a fertile district on the left bank of the Saar, and on the railway from Saarbrücken to Trier, 40 m. S. of the latter. Pop. (1905) 8313. The town is well laid out and has spacious streets and a handsome market square. It contains a Roman Catholic and a Protestant church, a town hall, the walls of the council chamber in which are hung with Gobelins, the gift of Louis XIV., a classical school and a hospital. There are coal-mines in the vicinity, and the town has considerable manufactures of porcelain, enamel wares and leather, as well as a brisk trade in cattle and grain.

Saarlouis was founded in 1681 by Louis XIV. of France, and was fortified by Vauban in 1680-1685. By the peace of Paris, in 1815, it was ceded to the allies and by them was made over to Prussia. The fortifications were dismantled in 1889. Marshal Ney was born here. »

See Niessen, Geschichte des Kreises Saarlouis (Saarlouis, 1893 and 1897); and Baltzer, Historische Notizen über die Stadt Saarlouis (Trier, 1865).

SAAVEDRA, ANGEL DE, (1791-1865), Spanish poet and politician, was born at Cordova on the 19th of March 1791. He fought in the war of independence, was a prominent member of the advanced Liberal party from 1820 to 1823, and in the latter year was condemned to death. He escaped to London and lived successively in Italy, Malta and France, until the amnesty of 1834, when he returned to Spain, shortly afterwards succeeding his brother as duke of Rivas. In 1835 he became minister of the interior under Istúriz, and along with his chief had again to leave the country. Returning in 1837, he joined the moderate party, became prime minister, and was subsequently ambassador at Paris and Naples. He died on the 22nd of June 1865. In 1813 he published Ensayos poéticos, and between that date and his first exile several of his tragedies (the most notable being Alatar, 1814, and Lanuza, 1822) were put upon the stage. Traces of foreign influence are observable in El Moro Expósito (1833), a narrative poem dedicated to John Hookham Frere; these are still more marked in Don Alvaro ó La Fuerza del sino (first played on the 22nd of March 1835), a drama of historical importance inasmuch as it established the new French romanticism in Spain.

.—Obras completas del Duque de Rivas (Madrid, 1894-1904); L. A. de Cueto, “ Discurso, " in Memorias de la academia española (Madrid, 1870); M. Cañete, Escritores españoles é hispanoamericanos (Madrid, 1884); J. Valera in El Ateneo (Madrid, December 1888-February 1889); E. Piñeyro, El Romanticismo en España (Paris, 1904).

SAAVEDRA FAJARDO, DIEGO DE (1584-1648), diplomatist and man of letters, was born of a noble family at Algezares (Murcia) on the 6th of May 1584. Educated for the church at Salamanca, he took orders, and in 1606 was appointed secretary to Cardinal Gaspar Borgia, the Spanish ambassador at Rome. Ultimately he became Spanish plenipotentiary at Regensburg in 1636 and at Munster in 1645. He returned to Spain in 1646 and took up the post of member of the council of the Indies to which he had been nominated in 1636, but shortly afterwards retired to a monastery, where he died in 1648. In 1640 he published his Empresas politicas, ó idea de un principe politico cristiano, a hundred short essays on the education of a prince; these were written primarily for the son of Philip IV. Its sententious style is still admired in Spain. It passed through a number of editions and was translated in several languages, the English version being by Astry (2 vols., 8vo, London, 1700). An unfinished historical work, entitled Corona gótica, castellana, y austriaca politicamente ilustrada, appeared in 1646. Another work ascribed to Saavedra, the República literaria, was published posthumously in 1670; it is a satirical discussion on some of the leading characters in the ancient and modern world of letters.