NANCY, the ancient capital of Lorraine, afterwards the chief town of the French department of Meurthe, and since 1872 that of the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, is situated 219 miles east of Paris by railway, on the left bank of the Meurthe, 6 miles above its junction with the Moselle. It consists of two distinct portions: the old town in the north-west, between the citadel and the streets and square which bear the name of Stanislas, is composed of narrow and winding streets; the Stanislas town in the south-east has, on the other hand, wide straight streets which cross each other at right angles and allow views of the hills around the city. Beyond the gates (several of which are preserved on account of their antiquarian interest, and still indicate the line of the old civic boundaries) long suburbs stretch out into the country. The railway from Paris to Strasburg skirts the city on the south-west side, and to the east and north lie the Meurthe and the canal from the Marne to the Rhine. Other railways—to Metz, to Épinal by Mirecourt, to Chateau Salins—join the main line in the neighbourhood, and make the place an important junction. The Place Stanislas is worthy of a capital city: in the centre stands the statue of Stanislas Leczinski, ruler of Lorraine (who still remains the most popular personage in the town which he embellished), and on all sides rise imposing buildings in the 17 th-century style—the town-hall, episcopal palace, theatre, <fcc. The streets opening into the square have railings of artistic workmanship. A fine triumphal arch known as the King’s Gate leads from the Place Stanislas to the Place Carrière, which forms a beautiful tree-planted promenade, and at its further end contains the Government palace and the so-called Pépinière ...(nursery), with fine clumps of trees, grass, and flowers. Other open spaces in the city are the Place d’Alliance (formed by Stanislas, with a fountain in memory of the alliance between Louis XV. and Maria Theresa in 1756), the Place de l’Académie, the Cours Léopold, the Place St Epvre, the Place Dombasle, and the Place de la Gare. The town-hall contains a picture gallery. The cathedral, built in the 18th century, has a wide façade flanked by two dome-surmounted towers, and a somewhat frigid and sombre interior. Of particular interest is the church of the Franciscans (Cordeliers), in the old town, built by René II. to commemorate his victory over Charles the Bold in 1476. Pillaged during the Revolution period, but restored to religious uses in 1825, it contains the tombs of Antony of Lorraine and his wife Marie d’Harcourt, Philippe of Gueldres, second wife of René II., the engraver Jacques Callot, Henry III., count of Vaudémont, and Isabella of Lorraine his wife, René II. (a curious monument raised by his widow in 1515), and Cardinal de Vaudémont. Here also is a chapel built in the beginning of the 17th century to receive the tombs of the princes of the house of Lorraine. The church of St Epvre, rebuilt between 1864 and 1874 on the site of an old church in the style of the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, has a fine spire and belfry and good stained glass windows. Bonsecours Church, at the end of the St Pierre Faubourg, contains the mausoleums of Stanislas (by whom it was built) and his wife Catherine, and the heart of their daughter Marie, queen of France. Of the old ducal palace, begun in the 15th century by Duke Raoul and completed by René II., there remains but a single wing, and of this a portion was destroyed by a great fire in 1871, and has been replaced by an upper primary school built in the same 15th-century style as the rest of the building. The entrance to this wing is a delightful specimen of the late Gothic of the beginning of the 16th century. From the ground-floor gallery a fine staircase ascends to the Galerie des Cerfs, which accommodates the archaeological museum of Lorraine; one of the greatest treasures of the collection is a piece of tapestry 92 feet long and 13 feet broad, which was found in the tent of Charles the Bold after the battle of Nancy. At a short distance from the railway station a cross marks the spot where the duke’s body was found. Of the old gates of Nancy the most remarkable is the Porte de la Crafle.
Nancy is the seat of a bishop and of a court of appeal, and the headquarters of a military division dependent on the Chalons corps d’armée. It is also a university town, with the four faculties of medicine, literature, science, and law, and as an educational centre has risen in importance since 1871. It possesses a large library, archives of antiquarian interest, a botanical garden, and a museum of natural history, an academy, a geographical society, and an important school of forestry (see vol. ix. p. 403). The first agricultural station founded in France (1822) is at Roville in the vicinity. Timber, grain, and hops (largely grown in the district), rags for the paper-mills of the Vosges, and the embroidery which was its earliest industry have long been the objects of an extensive trade at Nancy; during the last fifty years the commercial and industrial importance of the place has been greatly increased by the construction of the railway and the canal from the Marne to the Rhine, now supplemented by the new eastern canal between the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Saône; and since the Franco-German war the manufacturing class has been recruited by numerous immigrants from Alsace. Round about the city are now to be seen the chimneys of iron-works and foundries, cotton-mills, chemical-works, and glass-works; and large numbers of the inhabitants are also employed in making straw-hats, artificial flowers, boots and shoes, and hosiery. A printing and publishing establishment of some importance has been transferred from Strasburg. The population was about 28,000 in the close of the 18th century, 43,000 in 1856, 52,000 in 1871, and 66,000 (73,225 as a commune) in 1881.
At the close of the 11th century Odelric of Nancy, brother of Gerard of Alsace, possessed at Nancy a castle which enabled him to defy the united assaults of the bishops of Metz and Treves and the count of Bar. In the course of the next century the town was surrounded with walls, and became the capital of the dukes of Lorraine; but its real importance dates from the 15th century, when (in 1477) Charles the Bold and his schemes of conquest perished at its gates. Enlarged, embellished, and admirably refortified by Charles III., it was taken by the French in 1633 (Louis XIII. and Richelieu being personally present at the siege); and when in 1661 it was restored by Louis XIV. Charles was compelled to raze its fortifications. After the peace of Ryswick in 1697 Duke Leopold, at length in quiet possession of his duchy, set himself to repair the disasters of the past. He founded academies, established manufactures, and set about the construction of the new town. But it was reserved for Stanislas Leczynski, to whom Lorraine and Bar were assigned in 1736, to carry out the plans of improvement and embellishment in a style which made Nancy one of the palatial cities of Europe, and rendered himself the most popular as he was the last of the dukes of Lorraine. The city, which became French in 1766, was occupied by the allies in 1814 and 1815, and put to ransom by the Prussians in 1870.
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