Nancy: Architecture and Historic Sights

Nancy is the prefecture of Meurthe-et-Moselle and the former capital of the Duchy of Lorraine. Its streets bring together the ceremonial planning of Place Stanislas, the religious architecture of the Ville Neuve, the former ducal quarter and gates left from successive systems of fortification.

Place Stanislas

Place Stanislas was laid out between 1751 and 1755 under the direction of architect Emmanuel Héré. Duke Stanislas Leszczynski intended it both as a royal square and as a setting for public festivities. Classical façades give the ensemble its order, while each side has a distinct civic or cultural role.

The long Hôtel de Ville frontage closes the southern side. The Grand Hôtel and Opéra stand to the east, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts occupies the western side in a building once used by the Collège de Médecine. To the north, a curtain wall links the Vaudémont and Haussonville bastions.

Cathedral and basilicas

Nancy Cathedral stands in the Ville Neuve. Giovanni Betto, also associated in the directory entry with the church of Saint-Dié, designed it in the early eighteenth century. During the French Revolution the building was temporarily converted into a temple of the Goddess of Reason. It received the status of a privileged basilica in 1867.

Basilique Sainte-Epvre belongs to a later phase of the city’s religious architecture. Prosper Morey built it between 1865 and 1874 to replace an earlier parish church of the same name. Its neo-Gothic design is marked by a tall spire above the circular Place Sainte-Epvre, whose arcades define the edge of the square.

Emmanuel Héré also designed Église Notre-Dame de Bonsecours. Its polychrome nave, highly worked pulpit and stucco facing make it a notable French example of religious Rococo. Église Saint-Sébastien was built by the Nancy architect Jean-Nicolas Jennesson between 1720 and 1731, although its foundation dates to the late seventeenth century.

The ducal quarter

The Palais Ducal was the residence of the dukes of Lorraine. Its architecture combines late Gothic forms with Italianate Renaissance decoration. On the first floor, the large reception space known as the Galerie des Cerfs is complemented by the Salle Neuve, added later by Charles III. The Escalier de l’Horloge marks the division between the palace’s Classical and Gothic sections.

Église des Cordeliers was once joined to the palace by an underground passage. The church has a restrained interior in which red stained glass contrasts with pale stone walls. It contains the sanctuary of Charles the Bold and was closely associated with the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty.

Medieval and early modern gates

Porte de la Craffe stands north of the Vieille Ville. Erected in the fourteenth century, it is the surviving witness to fortifications that pre-date Vauban’s works. Two matching towers are joined by walls more than three metres thick. A second outer gate was added in the sixteenth century and connected to the first enclosure by an underground tunnel.

Charles III later commissioned Orféo Galeani to strengthen this approach with Porte de la Citadelle. Built in 1598, the gate linked two ear-shaped bastions and worked with a drawbridge system designed to separate town from countryside. It was classified as a Monument Historique in 1910.