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cathedral located in Moselle, in France
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Metz Cathedral is the cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Metz, the seat of the bishops of Metz. It is dedicated to Saint Stephen. The diocese dates back at least to the 4th century and construction of the present Gothic cathedral began in the 13th century. In the mid-14th century, it was joined to the collegiate church of Notre-Dame, and given a new transept and late Gothic chevet, finished between 1486 and 1520. The cathedral treasury displays a rich collection assembled over the long centuries of the history of the Metz diocese and include sacred vestments and items used for the Eucharist.
Metz Cathedral has the third-highest nave of cathedrals in France (41.41 meters (135.9 ft), after the cathedrals of Amiens and Beauvais. It is nicknamed la Lanterne du Bon Dieu ("the Good Lord's lantern"), on account of its displaying the largest expanse of stained glass in the world, totalling 6,496 m2 (69,920 sq ft). The stained glass windows include works by Gothic and Renaissance master glass makers Hermann von Münster, Theobald of Lixheim, and Valentin Bousch. Later artistic styles are represented by Charles-Laurent Maréchal (Romanticism), Roger Bissière (Tachism), Jacques Villon (Cubism), Marc Chagall, and Kimsooja.. Since 2014, the cathedral has been part of "Metz royale et impériale", a site covering the historic centre of Metz and its early 20th-century German extension, on France's Tentative List for World Heritage status.
A Gallo-Roman oppidum, or fortified town, called Diuodron Medimatriques, occupied the site from at least the first century B.C. It became a stop on the trade route between Lyon and Treves, and was an imperial residence during the Roman Empire between 306 and 390. The presence of the first bishop, Clement, is recorded in 346.
The cathedral was built on an ancient site dating to the 5th century and dedicated to Saint Stephen. It is said to have contained a collection of his relics. According to Gregory of Tours, the shrine of Saint Stephen was the sole structure spared during the sack of 451 by Attila's Huns. It was a royal residence of the grandsons of Clovis, king of the Franks, and of Theudebert I, who became the Merovingian ruler in 534.
Gregory of Tours mentioned the existence of the church in 584, and a cathedral under the archbishop Arnoul is mentioned in 616. The Archbishop and Saint Chrodegang (742–766) is mentioned in accounts of the time as a papal envoy to the Franks. He is credited with introducing the Roman liturgy and chants, with the support of King of the Franks, Pepin, between 751 and 768. Chrodegang is also credited with establishing the first cathedral chapter in western Europe, and also the first cathedral close, combining chapels, dormitory, refectory, and other functional buildings. This system was formally adopted by other Frankish cathedrals under the Capitulary of Aix-en-Chapelle of 816. This first cloister, on the south side of the cathedral where the Place des Armes is located, survived until its demolition in 1754.
In 843, after long disputes between Charlemagne's successors, the Holy Roman Empire was divided into four parts. In 870, Metz and its province Lorraine allied with East Francia while remaining an autonomous duchy. In 962, when Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, restored the Empire, Lorraine was designated as the autonomous Duchy of Lorraine, with Metz as its capital. It maintained this status until 1766, when it formally became part of France.
The construction of a new cathedral began under bishop Thierry I between 965 and 984, and was completed under his second successor Thierry II of Luxembourg, between 1006 and 1047. It was built in what was later called Ottonian style, a form of pre-Romanesque. This church had two towers and three bays on the west front, a nave with three vessels, and a larger tower over the transept. Because of its placement on a terrace next to the Moselle River, the cathedral could not have the traditional east to west orientation from the choir to the west front. Instead, it was oriented on an axis from southeast to northwest. The roof, following a regional tradition, was covered with tiles of white limestone.
A smaller church, the Collegiale of Notre-Dame-la-Ronde, was built close to the old cathedral in the 8th century, and was entirely rebuilt between 1200 and 1207 to be oriented directly with the axis of the cathedral. The complex of early buildings also included the cloister and a palace for the archbishop, where the market square is located today.
The reconstruction of the cathedral in the Gothic style was proposed in about 1220 by the bishop of Metz, Conrad III of Scharfenberg, the chancellor of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. The work began under James of Lotharingia (French: Jacques de Lorraine, German: Jakob von Lothringen), the head of the chapter, who became bishop in 1239. The art historian Alain Villes has argued that the documents of about 1220 concern confirmations of the chapter's prebends rather than the start of building work, and that the reconstruction of the cathedral and of the collegiate church of Notre-Dame-la-Ronde began around 1235–1240. Construction began at the west end of the nave and continued to the transept and the old choir, which was still in place until the end of the 15th century. The vault of the new structure was not planned to be higher than 30–35 meters.
The plan integrated the neighbouring Collegiate church of Our Lady into the western end of the cathedral, which resulted in the absence of a traditional west-end portal. The south-western porch of the cathedral became the entrance of the former collegiate church. ·
The nave, with the exception of its vaults, was probably finished between 1245 and 1250. Then a decision was taken to make the cathedral much taller, with the addition of a new level of large windows about forty meters high, equal in height to the two levels below. New more massive columns were added, and the triforium between the arcades and high windows was enlarged and strengthened to support the greater weight. Between 1250 and 1255 the south side walls west of the transept were also strengthened to support the new higher walls. The south façade was also built higher to match the greater height of the new nave. The piers of the flying buttresses were also reconstructed, doubling their height. In about 1270–75, the tower of the Chapter was raised to the height of the cornice of the new nave.
Since the new nave was now twice as high as planned, the towers also had to be made taller. Between 1275 and 1280, a second level and the beginning of a third level were added to the Tour de la Mutte. By 1359 the nave was entirely covered, but work on the upper walls continued for another twenty years. In 1380–81, the canons of the cathedral decided to demolish the wall which separated the cathedral from the adjoining nave of the church of Our Lady. This was resisted by the clergy of the collegiate church, but the work went ahead, modified by the installation of a grill between the two naves. In 1381 the cathedral chapter engaged the glassmaker Herman of Münster to make a rose window for the west front, which was finished in 1392. Pierre Perrat is documented as master mason of the cathedral from at least 1383, and also worked on the cathedrals of Toul and Verdun; in 1386 he obtained the right to be buried in the cathedral. His epitaph is the only one of a cathedral architect preserved in the building, and a later legend credited him with the whole cathedral, built through a pact with the devil, although he was one of many master masons who succeeded one another on the site between the 13th and 16th centuries.
There was a lull of nearly a century before major work was resumed on the construction of the transept and the choir. In 1388 a wooden belfry was installed by the city government on the La Mutte tower, and a new chapel, the Bishop's Chapel, was added on the lower south aisle in 1443. Its patron, Bishop Conrad Bayer of Boppard, died a few days after the chapel was consecrated, and was interred within it in 1459.
In 1468 a serious fire broke out on the new balustrade of the roof. In the years before the fire, from 1452 to 1467, there had been a bitter dispute between the city leaders and the cathedral authorities over who was responsible for the maintenance and safety of cathedral property, which Bishop George of Baden ended by excommunicating the city leaders. When the fire broke out, the city leaders refused to assist the clergy in fighting the fire, only sending men to put out the fire on the bell tower, which was owned by the city. Relations thereafter between the city and clerical authorities were strained.
The last work on the La Mutte bell tower was completed between 1477 and 1483. The stone shaft forty meters high was topped by a tall spire, giving it a total height of almost ninety meters. The finished cathedral was consecrated on 11 April 1552.
Work continued into the 16th century to rebuild the remaining Romanesque portions into the Gothic style. The old choir was demolished in 1503. A few weeks later, the old Romanesque south transept fell. The next year work began on the new transept, and the final flying buttress of the choir was installed in 1506. The new construction largely followed the original Gothic style. A new canonical choir was built beginning in 1519 next to the sanctuary, at the crossing of the transept. An ornate rood screen was installed between the choir and the nave, with sculpture by Mansuy Gauvain, and new choir stalls were installed. The choir was completed with a new altar and a small organ in the triforium above the rood screen. A project was also begun to create a new grand portal on the west end. The work was begun but was halted in 1552 by the entry into the city of the army of King Henry II of France. Work did not resume until 1761.
Metz and the Duchy of Lorraine formally retained their independent status, but the French political and cultural influence grew from 1737 until 1766, when France formally annexed the Duchy. In 1741, proponents of the new French classical style, popular in Paris, proposed to redecorate the choir of Metz Cathedral in the new style. They presented a neoclassical program for the choir by the royal sculptor from Paris, Sébastien Slodtz. However, Slotdtz's proposed decoration was fiercely resisted by the more conservative chapter and was finally rejected in 1762.
In 1754 another large modification was begun by the governor of Metz. He destroyed the old cloisters next to the church, with their chapels and arcades, with the intention of creating a parade ground for official celebrations. However, this project was abandoned in 1758. Instead, the space was filled by a group of houses, shops and a large pavilion.
Another classical addition to the cathedral was proposed in 1755 by the royal architect Jacques-François Blondel. He was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Architecture to build a Neoclassical Doric portico which would serve as the main entrance to the cathedral. This was funded partially by Louis XV, to celebrate his recovery from a serious illness from which he had nearly died in Metz in 1744. It was duly built between 1764 and 1766, However, the work on this new portal caused more problems; it was found that the portico would block some of the stained glass windows, and the digging of the deep foundations for the portico immediately created weaknesses in the west front and north buttress.
In the years before the French Revolution in 1789, many of the Gothic tombs and monuments of the cathedral were removed, or put into lower aisles to accommodate the new classical taste. The Revolution greatly accelerated the destruction. The cathedral chapter was formally abolished in 1790, and the cathedral was declared a simple parish and episcopal church. The old rood screen, made in 1555, was destroyed and replaced by a circular platform or stage in the transept. From 1793 to 1794, the cathedral was officially termed a "Temple of Reason". It was turned into a legal church in 1795, and services resumed, but it was not formally returned to the Catholic Church until 1802.
The cathedral was in a deplorable state in the early 19th century. The vaults shook when the bells in the tower rang. The arch supporting the right side of the bell tower was broken, and the windows of the tower had to be removed. The arch was finally replaced in 1829. Weaknesses of the foundation made the new portico unsteady. The wood of the belfry of the Chapter tower was rotting, and falling in pieces onto the street below; workmen refused to enter the unstable tower. The government finally agreed to finance the complete reconstruction of the tower of La Mutte, which was completed in 1843. The government of Emperor Louis-Napoleon promised a full restoration of the cathedral.
Following the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Lorraine and Metz were taken from France in 1871 and annexed to the new German Empire. In 1877, the cathedral was heavily damaged by a major fire caused by fireworks. The King of Prussia and Emperor William I took a particular interest in the rebuilding of Metz Cathedral, to win the support of the population.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Metz Cathedral”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.