Metz

Metz lies on the Moselle where Latin, Germanic, and French cultures meet, a frontier city shaped by Rome, prince-bishops, and the border shifts that culminated in German annexation in 1871–1918. Warm Jaumont limestone lends the old town its golden hue, and Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains—raised in the 4th c. as a Roman civic hall and later consecrated—embodies the city’s habit of reuse. The octagonal Templar Chapel, the vast stained glass of Metz Cathedral (13th–16th cc.), and the neo-Romanesque New Temple (1901–04) turn the skyline into a record of faith and identity.