The Moselle is the department of Metz and the German-speaking border region, a territory long contested between France and the German Empire, which was annexed to Germany from 1871 to 1918 before being returned to France after the First World War. This history of annexation and return to the motherland has left a deep mark on the identity of the Moselle, which is at once French and Germanic, Catholic and Protestant, Romanesque and Gothic.
Metz, the department’s capital, boasts one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in France — nicknamed the ‘Lantern of the Good Lord’ for the colossal expanse of its stained-glass windows — and a historic centre of great coherence with its imperial squares built under Napoleon III. The Centre Pompidou-Metz, a branch of the Paris museum, brings contemporary art to this region long isolated from the major cultural routes.
Malbrouck Castle in Manderen, a 15th-century fortress restored by the Moselle General Council, and the Bishops’ Castle of Metz in Vic-sur-Seille bear witness to a castle heritage that was severely tested by the two world wars but which still preserves remarkable examples of Lorraine’s medieval and Renaissance architecture.