Palais du Gouverneur: Military Command Residence in Metz
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical, Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- French, German, Roman
- Site type
- Civic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page8 sections
History
Palais du Gouverneur is a military residence in Metz, France, built under German rule between 1902 and 1905 in the Rhenish Neo-Renaissance style. It served as the official residence of the commander of the German XVI Army Corps, a major military formation headquartered in Metz, and also provided a pied-à-terre for Emperor Wilhelm II.
German construction
The project followed the establishment of the XVI Army Corps in Metz in 1890. Wilhelm II ordered a new residence for General Stoetzer, the corps commander, because the governor no longer had a suitable palace after the former Governor’s Palace had been converted into a courthouse. The new building occupied military land on the site of the former 1552 citadel, within the area enclosed by Roman and medieval fortifications and near the Citadel’s provision store.
Ferdinand Schönhals designed the palace in 1902. Max Stolterforth undertook its execution, military inspector Borowski supervised the work, and the contractor Mungenast carried out the construction. The building was inaugurated on 19 January 1905 in the presence of General Stoetzer. Wilhelm II visited it several times from May 1905 onward.
French administration and later military use
After France regained Alsace and Moselle following the First World War, General de Maud’huy, the new governor of Metz, moved into the palace in 1919. Its official designation changed as the command structure developed. It was successively known as the residence of the general commanding the XVI Army Corps and the residence of the senior general commanding the troops in Lorraine. From 1922, under General de Lardemelle, it became known as the Palais du Gouverneur.
In 1925, Michel Thiria replaced the imperial-armorial stained-glass windows. During the German de facto annexation in the Second World War, the palace again served as a Kommandantur, a military command headquarters. Its underground spaces functioned as air-raid shelters and as a command post during the Battle of Metz.
Modern command and protection
From 1966 to 1991, the military governor of Metz also commanded the 6th Military Region and, from 1976, the 1st Army Corps. Between 1991 and 2000, the office commanded the Metz military defence district. Since 2000, it has commanded the northeastern land zone and northeastern defence zone. The palace currently houses the commander of the northeastern military region. Metz also hosts the joint staff of the Eastern Defence Zone and the staff of the Northeastern Land Region, whose command zone includes several northeastern and eastern French regions and forces based in Germany.
The façades and roofs were protected by decree on 15 January 1975, and the palace has been listed in the supplementary inventory of historic monuments since that year. Restoration took place in 1994 and 1995. Roman monuments were uncovered during foundation work in 1902, adding archaeological evidence to the site’s earlier military history.
Remains
Palace architecture
Built from Jaumont stone, the local yellow limestone widely used in Metz, the palace takes the form of a northern German Renaissance castle. Its plan is an open, splayed V. The building contains 31 habitable rooms and 70 auxiliary spaces, including turrets, as well as 400 lamps. Five stepped gables, whose sloping edges rise in stair-step profiles, face five different directions.
The emperor’s apartments occupied the first floor. On the rear façade, a loggia, an open-sided covered gallery, and a veranda extend the building’s spaces. Gothic and Renaissance references appear together in the ornament. The complex also includes a concierge building, a principal entrance hall, reception rooms, a western façade, and a southern veranda.
Roman and medieval fortifications
The palace grounds retain sections of the Roman rampart that enclosed the earlier fortified area. They also preserve the large underground halls of the Tour d’Enfer, a medieval defensive tower incorporated into Metz’s fortification line and positioned at an angle in the medieval rampart. These surviving structures form part of the physical setting beneath and around the nineteenth-century military residence.
Interior objects
Inside the palace is a taxidermied brown bear approximately two metres high. A company of Russian hunters killed the bear and presented it as a gesture of friendship in 1898.
