The fortifications of Metz, a city in northeastern France, are extensive, due to the city's strategic position near the border of France and Germany. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, the area was annexed by the newly created German Empire in 1871 by the Treaty of Frankfurt and became the Reichsland Alsace–Lorraine. The German Army decided to build a fortress line from Mulhouse to Luxembourg to protect their new territories. The centerpiece of this line was the Moselstellung between Metz and Thionville, in Lorraine.
Franco-German border, 1914
Fort de Plappeville / Fort Alvensleben, September 7, 1940
Fort l’Aisne (Feste Wagner), 1904-1912
Metz is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Est region. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany and Luxembourg, the city forms a central place of the European Greater Region and the SaarLorLux euroregion.
Clockwise from top: overview of city centre 1(with Cathedral of Saint Stephen), Imperial Quarter, Temple Neuf, Germans' Gate, Opéra-Théâtre (place de la Comédie)
Henry II of France entering Metz in 1552, putting an end to the Republic of Metz.
Paul Verlaine by Edmond Aman-Jean, 1892, oil on canvas, Golden Courtyard museums Metz with its magnificent open countries, prolific undulating rivers, wooded hillsides, vineyards of fire; cathedral all in volute, where the wind sings as a flute, and responding to it via the Mutte: this big voice of the good Lord!— Paul Verlaine, Ode to Metz, Invectives, 1896
The city hall on the Place d'Armes.
