Saarbrücken (German: [zaːɐ̯ˈbʁʏkn̩] ⓘ; Rhenish Franconian: Sabrigge [zaːˈbʁɪɡə]; French: Sarrebruck[5] [saʁbʁyk]; Luxembourgish: Saarbrécken [zaːˈbʀekən] ⓘ; Latin: Saravipons; lit.

Products included iron and steel, sugar, beer, pottery, optical instruments, machinery, and construction materials.

The name Saar stems from the Celtic word sara (streaming water), and the Roman name of the river, Saravus.

[9] When Julius Caesar conquered Gaul in the first century BC, the area was incorporated into the Roman Empire.

[8] Since the first or second century AD,[8] a wooden bridge, later upgraded to stone,[7] connected vicus Saravus with the south-western bank of the Saar, today's St Arnual, where at least one Roman villa was located.

[12] In the third century AD, a Mithras shrine was built in a cave in Halberg hill, on the eastern bank of the Saar river, next to today's old "Osthafen" harbor,[13] and a small Roman camp was constructed at the foot of Halberg hill[11] next to the river.

In the sixth century, the Merovingians gave the village Merkingen, which had formed on the ruins of the villa on the south-western end of the (in those times still usable) Roman bridge, to the Bishopric of Metz.

In 1549, Emperor Charles V prompted the construction of the Alte Brücke (old bridge) connecting Saarbrücken and St Johann.

During the Franco-Dutch War, King Louis XIV's troops burned down Saarbrücken in 1677, almost completely destroying the city such that just 8 houses remained standing.

Saarbrücken was booming, and Prince William Henry spent on building and on infrastructure like the Saarkran river crane (1761), far beyond his financial means.

However, the famous baroque architect Friedrich Joachim Stengel created not only the Saarkran, but many iconic buildings that still shape Saarbrücken's face today, like the Friedenskirche (Peace Church), which was finished in 1745, the Old City Hall (1750), the catholic St. John's Basilica (1754), and the famous Ludwigskirche (1775), Saarbrücken's landmark.

[9] At the start of the Franco-Prussian War, Saarbrücken was the first target of the French invasion force which drove off the Prussian vanguard and occupied Alt-Saarbrücken on 2 August 1870.

Oral tradition has it that 14-year-old French Prince Napoléon Eugène Louis Bonaparte fired his first cannon in this battle, an event commemorated by the Lulustein memorial in Alt-Saarbrücken.

[15] The Royal Air Force raided Saarbrücken's railway station with 5 DH9s on 31 July 1918, on which occasion one DH9 crashed near the town centre.

[17] The first major raid on Saarbrücken was undertaken by 291 aircraft of the RAF on 29 July 1942, targeting industrial facilities.

[20] On 28 August 1942, 113 RAF planes raided Saarbrücken doing comparatively little damage due to widely scattered bombing.

At the request of the American Third Army, the RAF massively raided Saarbrücken on 5 October 1944, to destroy supply lines, especially the railway.

[17] Donald J. Gott and William E. Metzger, Jr. were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during the bombing run on 9 November 1944.

[23] A renewed attack on 3 March 1945, allowed units of the 70th Infantry Division to enter Stiring-Wendel and the remainder of Forbach.

The area rejoined the Federal Republic of Germany on 1 January 1957, sometimes called Kleine Wiedervereinigung (little reunification).

From 1990 to 1993, students and an arts professor from the town first secretly, then officially, created an invisible memorial to Jewish cemeteries.

The most recent city council election was held on 26 May 2019, and the results were as follows: The city is served by Saarbrücken Airport (SCN), and since June 2007 ICE high speed train services along the LGV Est line provide high speed connections to Paris from Saarbrücken Hauptbahnhof.

The Botanischer Garten der Universität des Saarlandes (a botanical garden) was closed in 2016 due to budget cuts.

The main campus of the Saarland University also houses the office of the Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik computer science research and meeting centre.

Furthermore, Saarbrücken houses the administration of the Franco-German University (Deutsch-Französische Hochschule), a French-German cooperation of 180 institutions of tertiary education mainly from France and Germany but also from Bulgaria, Canada, Spain, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Great Britain, Russia and Switzerland, which offers bi-national French-German degree programs and doctorates as well as tri-national degree programs.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Trier's Katholische Hochschule für Soziale Arbeit, a Fachhochschule for social work, was closed in 2008 for cost cutting reasons.

The building of Saarbrücken's bi-lingual French-German Deutsch-Französisches Gymnasium, founded in 1961 and operating as a laboratory school under the Élysée Treaty, also houses the École française de Sarrebruck et Dilling, a French primary school which offers bi-lingual German elements.

In the past a top-flight team, twice the country's vice-champions,5-time DFB Pokal Semi-finalists and was a participant in UEFA Champions League, the club draws supporters from across the region.