The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale that was published by the Imprimeries Réunies de Nancy. The card has a divided back.
Nancy
Nancy 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. Nancy had a population of 511,257 at the 2018 census, making it the 16th.-largest urban area in France, and Lorraine's largest.
The motto of the city is Non inultus premor (Latin for 'I am not injured unavenged')—a reference to the thistle, which is a symbol of Lorraine.
Place Stanislas is a large square built between 1752 and 1756 by architect Emmanuel Héré under the direction of Stanislaus I of Poland. It was designed to link the medieval old town of Nancy with the new city built under Charles III, Duke of Lorraine in the 17th century. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the first square in France to be given this distinction.
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, renowned for its innovations in surgical robotics.
History 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 across the river Meurthe. 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, father-in-law of the French king Louis XV, was then given the vacant duchy of Lorraine. Under his rule, Nancy experienced growth and a flowering of Baroque culture and architecture.
Stanislaus oversaw the construction of Place Stanislaus. Upon Stanislaus' death in February 1766, Lorraine and Barrois became a regular government of the Kingdom of France.
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.
Nancy Today
Nancy is situated on the left bank of the river Meurthe, and is surrounded by hills that are about 150 m higher than the city center, which is situated at 200 m above mean sea level.
The oldest part of Nancy is the Vieille Ville – Léopold, which contains the 14th. century Porte de la Craffe, the Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine, the Porte Désilles and the 19th. century St.-Epvre basilica. Adjacent to its south is the quarter Charles III – Centre Ville, which is the 16th.–18th. century "new town". This quarter contains the famous Place Stanislas, Nancy Cathedral, the Opéra national de Lorraine and the main railway station.
The old city center's heritage dates from the Middle Ages to the 18th. century. The cathedral, the Triumphal Arch and the Place de la Carriere are a fine examples of 18th.-century architecture. The Palace of the Dukes of Lorraine is the former princely residence of the rulers. The palace houses the Musée Lorrain.
The Church of Notre-Dame-de-Bonsecours is the final resting place of the last duke Stanislas.
The École de Nancy
The École de Nancy was a group of artists and architects founded by the glassmaster and furniture maker Émile Gallé. They worked in the art nouveau style at the end of the 19th. century and the early 20th. century.
It was principally their work which made Nancy a center of art and architecture that rivaled Paris and helped give the city the nickname "Capitale de l'Est".
The city still possesses many Art Nouveau buildings (mostly banks or private homes). Furniture, glassware, and other pieces of the decorative arts are conserved at the Musée de l'École de Nancy, which is housed in the 1909 villa of Eugène Corbin, a Nancy businessman and supporter of the Art Nouveau movement in Nancy. It displays artworks by Émile Gallé, Louis Majorelle, Daum, Caravaggio, and others.
The Musée des Beaux-Arts has further collections of the art nouveau movement.
