SAN MARTIN CHURCH

St. Martin's Church, devoted to the very famous Bishop of Towers in 397, is one of the oldest parishes in Metz. The first sanctuary was located at the time of the Gallo-Roman town of Divodurum (former name of Metz), but the date of construction is unknown. The current building has several phases of construction: the narthex and nave are dated at the beginning of the th century, while the choir, apse and transept date back to a second work campaign at the turn of the th and th centuries. Moreover, the building builds on the Roman walls of the th century. You can admire this Gallo-Roman remnant on both sides of the portal. Much of the glass is also part of the Renaissance era. The th century led to the substitution of the ancient stained glass windows of the apse by a whole due to the talents of the Messin Laurent-Charles Marshal and the reconstitution of the tower. The dark and dark vaults of what the habit calls narthex are first offered to visitors entering the church: its massive piles, its strong veins still betray the Romanesque influence, while pointing here and there the elements that will characterize Gothic architecture. Coming back the nave, finds the cross of the transept. As a choir of the building, it is framed by four massive pillars that mount from one jet until the retombée of the vaults. This building cannot be left without admiring the carved group of the Nativity (left arm of the transept; th century), the Nollet organ and its late th-century buffet and the Ecce homo of the chapel beneath the tower.