Catedral de Metz

A Catedral Saint Etienne de Metz, foi construída no século XIV e possui 118,3 m de altura. A altura e a leveza das paredes fizeram-me apaixonar por esta catedral, rica em vitrais e 100% gótica! Aliás, é a terceira mais alta de França!

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Because of difficulties with the place at the edge of the Mosel valley, the new church could not be orientated to the east, as it is usual: the main direction of the cathedral is north-north-east. In 1186, a small chapel (the collegiate church "Notre-Dame-de-la-Ronde") was added at the western end of the church, built at 90° to the main nave. The two buildings were separated by a massive wall.

About 1220, the building campaign in Gothic style was begun, to the order of Bishop Conrad of Scharfeneck. It was not completed until about 1520. The new cathedral was consecrated on 11 April 1552. The Gothic cathedral was built within the walls of its predecessor; after finishing the new church, the wall to the collegiate chapel at the west was torn down. This explains why the cathedral never had a main western portal and why the main entrance was for centuries at the south-western corner, the usual entrance to the church today.[2]

In 1877, due to a firework display honoring German emperor William II, the cathedral was heavily damaged after a fire broke out. After that incident, the western front of the cathedral was completely rebuilt from 1898-1903 in neo-Gothic style, to designs by Paul Tornow. So the cathedral got, for the first time in its history, a "proper" western main portal. In the following years (1906-1916), the interior was also redesigned and refurbished.

The stained glass windows, the largest expanses of stained glass in the world, were made by the master craftsmen Hermann von Münster in the fourteenth century, and Valentin Bousch in the sixteenth. In the twentieth century the artist Marc Chagall created three stained glass windows for the cathedral between 1958 and 1968. Roger Bissière and Jacques Villon provided designs for further windows, including the complete chapel of the Holy Sacrament.

Fonte: Wikipédia