Nancy, France
Nancy[a] is the prefecture of the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle. It was the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, which was annexed by France under King Louis XV in 1766 and replaced by a province, with Nancy maintained as capital. Following its rise to prominence in the Age of Enlightenment, it was nicknamed the "capital of Eastern France" in the late 19th century. The metropolitan area of Nancy had a population of 511,257 inhabitants at the 2018 census, making it the 16th-largest functional urban area in France and Lorraine's largest.[6] The population of the city of Nancy proper is 104,885.
Nancy
15.01 km2 (5.80 sq mi)
104,260
6,900/km2 (18,000/sq mi)
Nancéien (masculine)
Nancéienne (feminine)
188–353 m (617–1,158 ft)
(avg. 212 m or 696 ft)
The motto of the city is Non inultus premor (Latin for 'I am not injured unavenged')[7]—a reference to the thistle, which is a symbol of Lorraine. Place Stanislas, a large square built between 1752 and 1756 by architect Emmanuel Héré under the direction of Stanislaus I of Poland to link the medieval old town of Nancy and the new city built under Charles III, Duke of Lorraine in the 17th century, is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the first square in France to be given this distinction.[8] The city also has many buildings listed as historical monuments and is one of the European centres of Art Nouveau thanks to the École de Nancy. Nancy is also a large university city; with the Centre Hospitalier Régional Universitaire de Brabois, the conurbation is home to one of the main health centres in Europe, renowned for its innovations in surgical robotics.
1477 Battle of Nancy
The earliest signs of human settlement in the area date to 800 BC. Early settlers were likely attracted by easily mined iron ore and a ford in the river Meurthe. Its name is first attested as Nanciaco, possibly from a Gaulish personal name. A small fortified town named Nanciacum (Nancy) was built by Gérard, Duke of Lorraine around 1050.
Nancy was burned in 1218 at the end of the War of Succession of Champagne, and conquered by Emperor Frederick II. It was rebuilt in stone over the next few centuries as it grew in importance as the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine. Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy, was defeated and killed in the Battle of Nancy in 1477; René II, Duke of Lorraine became the ruler.
Following the failure of both Emperor Joseph I and Emperor Charles VI to produce a son and heir, the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 left the throne to the latter's next child. This turned out to be a daughter, Maria Theresa of Austria. In 1736, Emperor Charles arranged her marriage to Duke François of Lorraine, who reluctantly agreed to exchange his ancestral lands for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
The exiled Polish king Stanislaus I (Stanisław Leszczyński in Polish), father-in-law of the French king Louis XV, was then given the vacant duchy of Lorraine. Under his nominal rule, Nancy experienced growth and a flowering of Baroque culture and architecture. Stanislaus oversaw the construction of Place Stanislaus, a major square and development connecting the old medieval with a newer part of the city. Upon Stanislaus' death in February 1766, Lorraine and Barrois became a regular government of the Kingdom of France.[9] A parlement for Lorraine and Barrois was established in Nancy in 1776.[9]
As unrest surfaced within the French Armed Forces during the French Revolution, a full-scale mutiny, known as the Nancy affair, took place in Nancy in the latter part of summer 1790. A few units loyal to the government laid siege to the town and shot or imprisoned the mutineers.
In 1871, Nancy remained French when Germany annexed Alsace-Lorraine. In 1909 it hosted the Exposition Internationale de l'Est de la France between May and November.
Nancy was occupied by German forces beginning in 1940 and renamed Nanzig. During the Lorraine Campaign of World War II, Nancy was liberated from Nazi Germany by the US Third Army in September 1944, at the Battle of Nancy.
In 1988, Pope John Paul II visited Nancy. In 2005, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski inaugurated the renovated Place Stanislas, which was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.
The city is known for its World Heritage buildings at the Place Stanislas, which was opened April 2005 by Jacques Chirac after refurbishment.
At the turn of the 20th century, Nancy was a major center of the Art Nouveau with the École de Nancy. The city possesses a unique and interesting Musée de l'École de Nancy (School of Nancy Museum) with artworks by Émile Gallé, Louis Majorelle, Daum, Caravaggio,[30] and others. Nancy also has other museums:
The city is also the seat of the Diocese of Nancy and the home of the Opéra national de Lorraine. There is a network of libraries, the central of which is Bibliothèque municipale de Nancy.
Nancy is known for its macarons and bergamotes, candies flavored with bergamot essential oil.
Nancy has a large number of institutions of higher learning:
Transport[edit]
The main railway station is Gare de Nancy-Ville, with direct connections to Paris (high-speed rail line), Metz, Lyon, Strasbourg and several regional destinations. The motorway A31 connects Nancy with Metz, Luxembourg and Langres.
A nearby regional airport Lorraine Airfield provides scheduled air service to several cities within France.
Public transport within Nancy is provided by Service de Transport de l'Agglomération Nancéienne (STAN),[50] operated by Veolia Transport, operating around 20 conventional bus routes and, until early 2023, the Tram by STAN, a guided busway based on Bombardier Transportation's Guided Light Transit (GLT) technology and using articulated trolleybuses that was running for approximately 10 km on the East-West axis.