Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains, l'église des abbesses de Metz

Metz

Metz was the city of the kings of Austrasia: Sigebert held his court there and married Brunhild there in 566 or 567. From that time the city keeps a singular witness, and it is Roman. It is a large hall built around 370-400, probably for a bath complex, one of the oldest Roman buildings in France to have been turned over to Christian worship. In the early Middle Ages it became the church of an abbey of women, the “nonnains” (nuns) of its name: historians hesitate between the 7th and the 8th century, but a Merovingian foundation, at the beginning of the 7th century according to a Life of Saint Waldrada that attributes it to Duke Eleutherius, is the hypothesis most often accepted. The church then received a stone chancel screen, a carved enclosure separating the choir from the nave, dated to the 8th century; its panels are now in the Musée de la Cour d'Or. In 1556 the construction of the citadel turned the church into a military storehouse, and it remained one until the 20th century, which saved it without respecting it. Today people come in for concerts, Gregorian chant and exhibitions, and read on its walls, from the Roman masonry to the Romanesque arches and Gothic vaults, sixteen centuries of the history of a single building.

Wikipédia — Église Saint-Pierre-aux-Nonnains de Metz ↗

Getting there : Entrance at 1, rue de la Citadelle, on foot from the Esplanade and the city centre; buses on the LE MET' network. The building is a concert and exhibition venue of the Cité musicale-Metz, open in season in the afternoon from Tuesday to Sunday, and can be visited by appointment with a guide (to be checked). The chancel panels are displayed at the Musée de la Cour d'Or, in the old town (admission charged, opening times to be checked).

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound