METZ CIVITAS

Metz has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted in the CITY OR CIVITAS category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the entire history of european integration and the future of Europe.

Metz is one of the most ancient cities of the history of European integration, signed in great part by Christianity. It was founded centuries B.C. during the "La tène culture" age by the local Celts tribe. What is the name of the inhabitants? It probably is Mediomatrici whose name was used by the Romans when conquered the region and built a castra in 52 A.D., near the confluence of the Moselle and Seille rivers, called Divodurum Mediomatricum and inhabited by Celts together with Italics. The Civitas Metz was a station on the Flavia Way starting in Xanten and passing through the civitas of Cologne, Trier, Chalon-sur-Saône, Lyon, Vienne to end in Arles, within the Roman Respublica.

Within the reform of Augustus (see Roman Empire), Metz was included into the Gallia Belgica province and obtained the building of an amphitheatre, the forum, the thermae connected to the local aqueduct and the Basilica of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains, which are still visible today. With the reform of Constantine I (see Christian Empire), Metz became part of the Galliarum Diocesi starting the evangelization of Gallia and Germany provinces by the bishopric founded in IV century A.D., while at the falling of Western Roman Empire the city was included into the Austrasia Regna founded in 511 A.D. and Metz became the capital and official residence of the Merovingian dinasty.

With the renovatio imperii of Charlemagne and the 843 A.D. Treaty of Verdun Metz was elevated as capital of the Lotharingia regna (Lower Lorraine) and ruled by the the Carolingian family for more than a century. Their dominions were inherited by the emperor of Reich Empire and divided, so that Metz became the capital of High Lorraine Ducky and followed the destiny and history of Reich until 1648 A.D. (Westfalia treaty): it has always been one of the most important and prestigious bischopric also the feudum of the whole Reich, ruled for centuries by the Lorraine-Metz dinasty.

In Modern era, Metz became the principle bischopric in the northern France kingdom and a strategic fortress opposed to the II Reich, which annexed again Metz and Alsace-Lorraine region after the 1871 A.D. war but restitued it to France at the end of First World War. The consequence of that situation had been the local law (droit local) applied in Metz as a legal system operating in parallel with the French law since 1919 A.D., to preserve the laws applied in that country before 1870 A.D. and maintained by Germans during the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine and repealed in the rest of France after 1871 A.D.. This specific local legislation encompasses different areas including religion, social work and finance: the difference is the absence in Alsace-Lorraine of strict secularism and the ruling laws established by the Concordat of 1801 A.D., which provides for the public subsidy of the Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist churches and the Jewish cult. Metz remains a border and international city defending its historical traditions pushing for a developed tourism in a green space, rich coisine and lots of yearly Celebrations and events.

What to see in Metz? Today Metz is rich of historical, cultural and architectural treasury hosting buildings such as the Gothic Saint-Stephen Cathedral with its largest expanse of stained-glass windows in the world, the Basilica of Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains which is the oldest church of France, the Imperial Station Palace and its Opera House, the oldest one working in France. Metz is a medium size town in the north-east of the country near the borders with Germany and Luxembourg, capital of the Grand Est region whose patron is Saint Arnulf an ancient bishop ot the city and ancestor of the Caroligian dinasty.

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