At the Gothic cathedral of Saint-Étienne, in the city of Metz, northeast France

 t has been 18 centuries since Pope Honorius III issued an edict to raise money for a new cathedral in the city of Metz. And while it would be years before the first stone was laid, and three centuries until the building was complete, the French city chose 2020 to celebrate the birthday of a spectacular structure known as “God’s Lantern.” It is a nickname befitting both the building’s distinctive honey-like glow (a property of the local limestone) and an expanse of stained glass that is among the world’s largest. Featuring one of the tallest naves in Gothic architecture, Metz Cathedral (a.k.a. the Cathedral of Saint Stephen) is widely considered to be among the finest examples of medieval church-building.

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(in northeast France, at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers) The city of Metz, in the Moselle département, in the Grand Est région, northeastern France, is situated northwest of Strasbourg and south of the Luxembourg frontier. It was partly rebuilt and its suburbs considerably extended after World War II.

+ During the 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War the French troops retreated into Metz after an indecisive battle. The Germans besieged the city, and 54 days later the French were forced to capitulate. Metz was returned to France after World War I. During World War II it was occupied by the Germans and in 1944 was liberated only after a long battle.

+ Today, Metz has pleasant promenades along the banks of the Moselle River, which divides into several arms as it flows through the city. The Gothic cathedral of Saint-Étienne was originally formed when two 12th-century churches were joined into a single edifice. The transept and the nave, one of the highest of French Gothic churches, have huge pointed windows. The two towers were begun in the 13th century. The cathedral has remarkable 13th- and 14th-century stained-glass windows, as well as contemporary ones by the painters Marc Chagall and Jacques Villon. The old city gate, the Porte des Allemands (Gate of the Germans), built in the 13th and 15th centuries, which was partly destroyed during World War II, has imposing crenellated towers. The museum has a collection of Gallo-Roman antiquities, which are exhibited in the vestiges of Roman baths discovered in 1935. A regional branch of Paris’s Pompidou Centre opened in Metz in 2010. The avante-garde building, which is highlighted by an undulating roof, houses an extensive collection of modern art.