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It is the centuries old city of burial ground for thousands of soldiers who died while trying either
to reduce or to defend the city.
Metz was built by the Gauls as headquarters for the department of Moselle of the Alsace-
Lorraine territorial family. Later, the Romans fortified the city to defend the Holy Roman Empire
against the barbarians.
Traces of forts built by the Romans to defend of the Gallic part of their empire from the Huns
still exist today among the fortifications of more modern engineers.
The Romans built six great roads from Metz to distant provinces, two west to Reims, two north
along the banks of the Moselle to Trier, one to Strasbourg on the Rhine, and one beyond Paris to
Mayenne, only 75 miles from the Channel coast.
Until the XX Corps of the American Third Army reduced Metz in November, 1944, the city had
fallen by attack only once to military forces. The Huns captured and burned the town in 451 A.D.
Metz and the entire region between the Meuse and the Rhine, were a part of the Empire of
Charlemagne (742-814). In 843, after a series of wars, the city became the possession of a conquerer
named Lothaire, who made it the capital of his kingdom, Lotharingia, later to be known as Lorraine.
In 870 the Treaty of Mersen assigned Metz to Louise-Le-Germanique. The city remained under
the Germanized Holy Roman Empire until 1220 when it attained the title of “Imperial Free Town” and
became a city Republic.
Because of its wealth, Metz was coveted by powerful neighbors, among them the Dukes of
Lorraine. The city joyfully welcomed a French army sent by Henry II in 1552.
The French force occupied Metz peacefully, and the people were quick to accept attachment to
the powerful French Crown, but storms were gathering east of the Rhine where emperor Charles V of
Germany refused to accept the French King’s fait accompli.
While Charles V assembled an army, Henry II sent the Duke of Guise to Metz at the head of a
group of French nobles. The Duke found the fortifications in a lamentable state and set about rebuilding
them. He rallied the nobility and Metz society to the task of working with their hands.
The defenses upon which the Duke and his company labored were extended in the 12th century
to the island formed by the two arms of the Moselle River until they consisted of a high rampart
protected by 68 towers.
The German Emperor’s army reached Metz on the 19th of October, 1552, to find the Duke of
Guise in command of 10,000 determined defenders, manning strong fortifications.
For two and a half months the 10,000 held 60,000 men in check. The Germans fired 14,000
rounds from 100 guns. This was extraordinary heavy fire for those times, but the French withstood all
attacks. When Charles V finally lifted the siege, 30,000 of his men were dead, wounded, or sick.
From that day Metz was the pivot of French defenses on the nation’s northeastern border and
remained largely independent under French protection until 1648. For more than 50 years the city was
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