Paris - oh yes, that's fine. Berlin - hmm, too bad. Stockholm - and since it is quite all right. Capitals of Europe, after all. But today we dedicate our report not to them, and the small European "bear corner" neturisticheskomu, but nevertheless very well known. How so? And that's it.

Tell me who you have not heard of the phrase "metlahskaya tile?" Everyone has heard, seen everything, the beauty of tile does not shine well. This very metlahskoy tiles, reddish-brown or dark yellow, were posted all more or less decent public toilets of our vast Motherland. That's just for this metlahskoy tile that we used to see, and so call it, has nothing to do.

And to prove this, I propose to you a trip to town Mettlach, Saarland on the border lands and Rhineland-Palatinate. Deep province, lost somewhere between Saarschinoy and Pfaltsschinoy from Luxembourg entire (uzhas!) forty miles.

As always, start with a historical perspective.

The name "Broom" is probably from the Latin «Medius Lacus» - that is, "between lakes".

In the 7th century Frankish duke Lutvinus, part-time bishop of Trier, built on the river Saar St. Peter's Abbey, where he bequeaths to bury him. In the 9th century, the abbot tells Lioffin erected over the grave of the founding father of St Mary's Church, octagon at the base, modeled on the Cathedral of Aachen. St Mary's Church is now called the Old Tower, and is the oldest architectural structure of the Saarland.

Abbey, which became a Benedictine, a burning and often destroyed by wars, rebuilt and rebuilt again, its current baroque form acquired by the mid 18th century - and a little later, it was secularized by Napoleon Bonaparte, "the decline".

In 1809, the fruit of the secularization took practical Luxembourger Jean-Fran?ois Bosh, or, in German, Johann Franz Boch. It is this version of his name and we will stick on.

Boch, the son of an entrepreneur, had certainly prescient. Assessing the quality of the clays and sands of the Saar, the presence of high water, forests, and cheap labor, he organizes the faience and porcelain factory. But if all of his predecessors relied on wealthy customers, the main "target group consumer" products Bohan - ordinary people is very, very moderate means.

Boch was a businessman "new type" strongly ahead of their time. Factory equipped with first-class equipment, the workers were based hospital, widow's house, day care, nursing home, elementary and art-crafts school, office of emergency financial assistance. Were created temperance society, a circle of needlework circle salutary reading, working chorus, scholarships for gifted young belize offshore company people. And almost everything is there and works fine so far.

So, the firm "Johann Franz Boch" develops beautifully, opening branches and shops in Brussels and Dresden, in 1822 in Berlin at the Prussian Show won a gold medal for its pottery, and in 1836, Boh makes "interesting proposal" to unite its core rival, Nicolas Villerua elderly, or in German, Nicolas Villeroy. And with this commemorative year begins to exist world-famous and deeply respected ceramic company «Villeroy & Boch».

The manufacturing union was subsequently assigned by family ties, clans Villeroy Boch, and marry off their children and nephews, the firm was hereditary, the heirs were in the best schools in Europe, to name Boch has been added to the prefix "von", and the family Villeroy Boch has given the world-famous artists such as Anna Boch and Boch Eugen (Eug?ne Bosch), impressionist, and a great friend of Vincent Van Gogh.

Abbey was Metlaha plant administration building, and remains so to this day. Factory safely there, producing a now quite an expensive limited-edition and designer porcelain and faience, as well as recreating the old tile designs and drawings for restoration work.

What is the factory management in our traditional understanding? Strict dull building with a mandatory checkpoint, which just so and you will not get, and there is no need. What's there to see panama boquete something? And listen to? Here's just it.

It's not so in the factory factory "Villeroy Boch, and". We arrive, parking the car on the half-empty parking lot and enter the city without passing in a beautiful historic building from the open windows of which the powerful rush piano passages. Second Concerto by Beethoven. And in an excellent performance. Where a sudden? "Hush, hush, - smiling attendant. - We have a bi-monthly subscription charity concerts. The tradition of this, about a hundred years already. "

This means that twice a month, elite land Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate gathers in tiny Mettlach listen to good music. And it pays a pretty penny. A part of the hall is left specifically for factory workers and residents Metlaha - and it is for them or for free, or for a nominal fee.

After listening to part of the Second Concerto, set off to wander through the plant further. Nobody stops, nobody asks why. We ask - about the museum, and we politely escorted there. People in the museum a little - yes, we are a group of elderly nursing home city of Koblenz. They have weekly trips.