Nancy is situated in the French province of Lorraine, and has an air of refinement found nowhere else in this region. Much of the city centre was built during the 18th century, and the resplendent central square, fine museums, formal gardens and shop windows sparkling with Daum and Baccarat crystals are all still in tact today.

The city is well know for it’s world heritage buildings at the Place Stanislas. At the turn of the 20th century, Nancy was a major centre of the Art Nouveau and the Ecole de Nancy.

Getting there

The main railway station is Gare de Nancy-Ville, with direct connections to Paris, Metz, Lyon and Strasbourg as well as regional destinations. By road, the A31 connects Nancy with Metz, Luxembourg and Langres.

Signs of human settlement date back to 800BC, and settlers were probably attracted to the area by easily mined iron ore and a ford in the Meurthe River. The town was built by Gerard, Duke of Lorraine around 1050. This was then burned in 1218 at the end of the War of Succession of Champagne, and conquered by Emperor Frederick II, then rebuilt in stone over the next few centuries, soon becoming the capital of the province of Lorraine.

During the French Revolution, unrest among the French armed forces emerged and a full scale mutiny occurred in Nancy towards the end of the summer in 1790.

Nancy was freed from Nazi Germany by the U.S. Third Army in September 1944, during the Lorraine Campaign of World War II.