Metz

Saint-Etienne de Metz carries around six thousand five hundred square metres of stained glass, more than any other French cathedral, which is why it is nicknamed the good Lord's lantern; the walls between the piers are largely glass and the nave is among the tallest in France. The glass spans the thirteenth century to the twentieth, with windows by Marc Chagall in the north transept and ambulatory. The city was German from 1871 to 1918, and the district around the station is a deliberate showcase of German imperial architecture from that period. The Centre Pompidou-Metz opened in 2010 under a woven timber roof shaped like a Chinese hat.

History

Before Caesar's conquest of Gaul Metz was the oppidum of the Celtic Mediomatrici, and as the Roman Divodurum it became one of the main towns of Gaul, with some 40,000 people, until it passed to the Franks at the end of the 5th century. Between the 6th and 8th centuries it was the residence of the Merovingian kings of Austrasia, after the Treaty of Verdun in 843 it became capital of Lotharingia, and within the Holy Roman Empire it was a self-governing republic from the 12th to the 15th century. By the Treaty of Chambord of 1552 it passed to the kings of France, which the Empire recognised only in 1648, and it became the capital of the Three Bishoprics and a fortified stronghold, and in 1789 capital of the Moselle department. From 1871 it belonged to the German Empire, whose architects built the district around the station, and in the 1950s it became capital of the new Lorraine region (Wikipedia, Metz).

What to look for

• The glass walls - about six thousand square metres of window in one building.
• The Chagall windows - twentieth-century glass among medieval work.
• The German quarter - imperial-era architecture around the station.
• Centre Pompidou-Metz - a woven timber roof over changing exhibitions.

When to go

April to October for the best light through the glass, which is the whole point of the cathedral. The Pompidou changes exhibitions through the year and closes Tuesdays.

Things to know

The glass needs sun to do anything; on a grey day the interior is dim. Restoration scaffolding is often present somewhere. The Pompidou has no permanent collection, so check what is showing.

Nearby

Nancy lies south; Luxembourg is north.