A year of festivities for the 800 years of Metz cathedral

With its 41 meters of vault height, its sculpted facades, the sixteen pillars of its nave, its neo-Gothic portals, its green copper roof and its tower of the Mutte which rises to 90 meters, the religious building, built on a promontory , welcomes more than 700.000 visitors each year.

The PS mayor of Metz, Dominique Gros, recalled that since its construction from 1220 in yellow Jaumont stone, the Saint-Etienne cathedral was "a strategic monument", during the presentation of the festivities at a conference release this week.

Nicknamed "the lantern of the good Lord" for its 6.500 m² stained glass windows, dating from the XNUMXth to the XNUMXth century, the cathedral has seen great glass artists such as Hermann de Münster, Théobald de Lixheim, Valentin Bousch, or more recently Jacques Villon and Marc Chagall.

For the eighth centenary of the monument, property of the State, the Korean artist Kimsooja will realize "the first stained glass of the 21st century in the triforium of Sainte-Chapelle", by means of a public order, announced the prefect of Moselle, Didier Martin.

The festivities, organized by the diocese and the local communities, will start at the end of November with a "videomapping" (light projection) on the monument after dark, retracing the history of its construction and its builders.

For the jubilee, a multidisciplinary reference work will be published, "The grace of a cathedral", announced the bishop, Monseigneur Jean-Christophe Lagleize.

Cultural places in the city will be associated with the jubilee; the concert hall L'Arsenal will offer concerts of sacred music and the Center Pompidou-Metz will organize an exhibition "Chagall, le passer de lumière".

At the Town Hall, an exhibition will be devoted to the fire which ravaged the roof of the cathedral in May 1877, due to a fireworks display fired in honor of Emperor William I, who was passing through in Metz, then under German annexation.