Saint Etienne Cathedral was built from 1220 to 1552, it has one of the highest Gothic edifices in Europe. I was way more impressed with this cathedral than Saint Martin’s Cathedral (The Dom) in Mainz that everyone says is a must see. While walking through Saint Etienne the enormity of this cathedral from its vaulted ceilings to the endless panes of stained glass left me in awe. Definitely one of my favorites so far! It’s free to visit so if your passing through Metz, I highly recommend you take the time to stop by and check it out.
There are brochures in English that will help you find and learn about the items in the church, look for the number display sign and find the corresponding number in the brochure. Bea was our tour guide and led us through the cathedral 😉
The size of this church is so impressive, I’m always fascinated by medieval architecture! Also impressed that it survived the wars as well!
One of the first items is the baptismal basin, which is a huge piece.
A pulpit with a wooden staircase.
The cathedral has the nickname ‘God’s Lantern’ because of all the stained glass windows, and I can say that truly encapsulates what it’s like to be in the cathedral with all the windows filled with sunlight.
There was also a huge organ, which despite its vastness seemed dwarfed under this enormous stained window!
It also has Marc Chagall stained glass windows! These can only be found in Germany in St. Stephen’s in Mainz and we didn’t get a chance to see them so I was excited to find them here.
There are even interesting features on the church exterior as well, like these animals and people found at the entrance.
An exterior view of the windows although they look nothing like the amazing view from the inside.
There are some sort of weird animals ‘jumping’ from the building tops as well.
I so love this door! For some reason I just love old ornate doors 🙂
Check back on Thursday for the rest of our trip to Metz, France!
Beautiful!
We really like this cathedral, too. I love the Chagall windows! Metz is a cool city (funny, recently I took quite a few pics of old doors there!). I especially like the little shopping street right behind the cathedral.