Metz is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Est region. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany and Luxembourg, the city forms a central place of the European Greater Region and the SaarLorLux euroregion.
The Moselle is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A small part of Belgium is in its basin as it includes the Sauer and the Our.
Belfort is a city in northeastern France, situated approximately 25 km (16 mi) from the Swiss border. It is the prefecture of the Territoire de Belfort.
Longwy is a commune in the French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, administrative region of Grand Est, northeastern France.
Thionville is a city in the northeastern French department of Moselle. The city is located on the left bank of the river Moselle, opposite its suburb Yutz.
Sarrebourg is a commune of northeastern France.
Neuf-Brisach is a fortified town and commune of the department of Haut-Rhin in the French region of Alsace. The fortified town was intended to guard the border between France and the Holy Roman Empire and, subsequently, the German states. It was built after the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 that resulted in France losing the town of Breisach, on the opposite bank of the Rhine. The town's name means New Breisach.
Phalsbourg is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France, with a population of about 5,000.
The Canal de la Marne au Rhin is a canal in north-eastern France. It connects the river Marne and the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne in Vitry-le-François with the port of Strasbourg on the Rhine. The original objective of the canal was to connect Paris and the north of France with Alsace and Lorraine, the Rhine, and Germany. The 313 km (194 mi) long canal was the longest in France when it opened in 1853.
Rosières-en-Haye is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France. It hosted an important Air Base that has been converted in 2012 in the largest photovoltaic power plant of Europe at that time.
Lutzelbourg is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. This town is located in the historic region of Lorraine and is part of the country of Sarrebourg.
Marsal is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France.
The Fortifications of Vauban is a UNESCO World Heritage Site made up of 12 groups of fortified buildings and sites along the borders of France. They were designed by renowned military architect Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633–1707) during the reign of King Louis XIV. These sites include a variety of fortifications, ranging from citadels, to mountain batteries and sea fortifications, to bastion walls and towers. In addition, the site includes cities built from scratch by Vauban and communication towers. These sites were chosen because they exemplify Vauban's work, bearing witness to the influence of his designs on military and civilian engineering on a global scale from the 17th century to the 20th century.
The siege of Toul was the siege of the fortified French town of Toul from 16 August to 23 September 1870 by Prussian, Bavarian and Württemberg forces during the Franco-Prussian War. Toul controlled a railway line leading to Germany and it was vital for the Germans to secure it to resupply and reinforce their armies in northern France.
The Battle of Flirey took place in the First World War and was fought from 19 September to 11 October 1914. The German Army defeated the French. The battle cut most of the roads and railways to the Fortified Region of Verdun and had a considerable effect on the rest of the war on the Western Front.
Toul-Croix De Metz Airfield is a former military airfield which is located approximately one mile (1.6 km) northeast of Toul ; 160 miles (260 km) east of Paris.
The fortified region of Belfort formed the first line of defense in the Séré de Rivières system of fortifications in the Belfort Gap. Located in northeastern France between Épinal and Besançon, the primary line was built in the late 19th century to deal with advances in artillery that had made older defensive systems obsolete.
Fort Jeanne d'Arc, also called Fortified Group Jeanne d'Arc, is a fortification located to the west of Metz in the Moselle department of France. It was built by Germany to the west of the town of Rozérieulles in the early 20th century as part of the third and final group of Metz fortifications. The fortification program was started after the German victory of the Franco-Prussian War, which resulted in the annexation of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine from France to Germany. The Fort Jeanne d'Arc was part of the Moselstellung, a group of eleven fortresses surrounding Thionville and Metz to guard against the possibility of a French attack aimed at regaining Alsace and Lorraine, with construction taking place between 1899 and 1908. The fortification system incorporated new principles of defensive construction to deal with advances in artillery. Later forts, such as Jeanne d'Arc, embodied innovative design concepts such as dispersal and concealment. These later forts were designed to support offensive operations, as an anchor for a pivoting move by German forces into France.
Metz, the capital and the prefecture of the Moselle department in France, has a recorded history dating back over 2,000 years. During this time, it was successively a Celtic oppidum, an important Gallo-Roman city, the Merovingian capital of the Austrasia kingdom, the birthplace of the Carolingian dynasty, a cradle of Gregorian chant, and one of the oldest republics of the common era in Europe. As an important city in the heart of Europe and the crossroads of different cultures, Metz has variously experienced an integration into the Roman Empire, the period of christianization, the barbarian depredations, religious wars, the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, an annexation into the German Empire, and World War II.
Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Alsace and Lorraine, territories of the Holy Roman Empire located between the Meuse and Rhine rivers, were annexed by the Kingdom of France. Part of these same territories were annexed by the German Empire in the 19th century, then by the Third Reich in the 20th century, before returning to French rule at the end of World War II.
