Metz

Before Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul, Metz was the stronghold of the Celtic Mediomatrici. As Divodurum Mediomatricorum it became one of the principal towns of Roman Gaul, with about 40,000 people; its main streets still follow the Roman cardo and decumanus, and the Basilica of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains began as a Roman building of the 4th century. In the 5th century the name became Mettis, and from the 6th to the 8th century the city was the residence of the Merovingian kings of Austrasia. It is also counted as the birthplace of the Carolingian dynasty, and under bishops such as Chrodegang it became a centre of Gregorian chant and of manuscript illumination, producing the Drogo Sacramentary.

In the 12th century Metz became a republic, which lasted until the 15th century. By the Treaty of Chambord of 1552 German Protestant princes handed it, with Toul and Verdun, to the king of France, although the Holy Roman Empire recognised the change only at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The city became one of France's great fortresses, and in 1789 the capital of the new Moselle department.

After the Franco-Prussian War the Treaty of Frankfurt of 1871 made largely French-speaking Metz part of the German Empire, as capital of the district of Lorraine, and between 1902 and 1914 the Germans built the Imperial Quarter around a monumental new station. The city returned to France in 1918, was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1940, and was attacked and taken by US forces in 1944. Since the decline of the steel industry, Metz has worked to diversify, and the opening of the Centre Pompidou-Metz in 2010 marked a new cultural ambition.

Metz has been steeped in French culture while strongly influenced by German culture through its location and history. The cathedral, nicknamed la Lanterne du Bon Dieu, the Good Lord's lantern, for its stained glass, displays windows from the Gothic master Hermann von Münster through the Renaissance to Roger Bissière, Jacques Villon and Marc Chagall, and another church in the city has a complete set of windows by Jean Cocteau. Between 1834 and 1870 the Metz School, an art movement centred on Charles-Laurent Maréchal, flourished here until the war and the annexation broke it up.

Music matters here. The Opéra-Théâtre is the oldest working opera house in France, the Arsenal concert hall is home to the Orchestre National de Lorraine, Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains hosts concerts of Gregorian chant, and the BAM is the venue for rock and electronic music. The Centre Pompidou-Metz has become one of the most visited cultural venues in France outside Paris. The poet Paul Verlaine was born in the city, and his birthplace is now a museum.

The city's emblem is the Graoully, a dragon said to have been defeated by Saint Clement, the first bishop of Metz, and it has appeared on the city's insignia since the 10th century. Metz calls itself la Ville Verte, the green city, for its many gardens along the Moselle and the Seille, and every August it devotes two weeks to the Mirabelle Festival. FC Metz is the city's football club.

About 122,000 people lived in Metz in 2022, and about 377,000 in the metropolitan area. The city is the prefecture of the Moselle and the seat of the regional council of Grand Est, and it lies about 43 km from the tripoint where France, Germany and Luxembourg meet, within the cross-border Greater Region.

A historic garrison town, Metz is the economic heart of Lorraine. The steel industry once dominated the Moselle's economy, and the city has since built up commerce, tourism, information technology and the car industry. The University of Lorraine, Georgia Tech Europe and other engineering schools are based here, and research in metallurgy continues the region's iron and steel heritage.

Residents live in the old town, in the German-built Imperial Quarter and Sablon, and in suburbs spread across the Moselle valley. The Mettis rapid buses link the centre with the campus and hospitals, and the riverside gardens fill on summer evenings. Like the rest of the Moselle, the city keeps the special local law inherited from the annexation years.

Metz shares the cooking of Lorraine. Quiche is a pastry case filled with savoury custard, in its Lorraine form with lardons or bacon; potée lorraine is meat and vegetables, especially cabbage and potatoes, cooked together in stock; and pâté lorrain is a meat terrine in pastry, regarded as emblematic of the region. Suckling pig is another local speciality.

The mirabelle plum and the damson are made into jams, tarts, charcuterie and fruit brandy, and in August the Mirabelle Festival fills the city with stalls selling fresh plums, mirabelle tarts and liqueur. Local drinks include the wines of the Moselle and Amos beer.

The Covered Market in the historic centre, one of the oldest and grandest in France, is home to traditional producers and food shops and is the best place to find these specialities in one place. Restaurants and cafés spread across the pedestrian old town, with terraces under the arcades of the Place Saint-Louis.