Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Jesuit College of Metz originated in the former Abbey of Saint-Clément, founded in 1669 under the Abbatiate of François Reynel. The works, started by the cloister, spread until 1737 with the finalization of the portal of the Conventual Church. Architects Jean Spinga and Lapierre, as well as artisans such as Pierre Le Moyne, are contributing. Conventual buildings, organized around a cloister, housed refectory, chapter room, and monks' rooms. After the Revolution, the abbey was confiscated and turned into a military warehouse.

In 1855, the Society of Jesus acquired the site to establish a college. Two successive projects, led by Father Mathieu Lauras and his pupil Edmond Duthoit, transform the premises: construction of new buildings around a courtyard called "the parlor", including a chapel on the ground floor, and the elevation of the old buildings. The facades, marked by separate works (mid-nineteenth century and late seventeenth-early eighteenth), reflect this complex architectural evolution.

The college had a turbulent history: expulsion of the Jesuits in 1872 after German annexation, reuse as a normal school, hospital during the First World War, and reopening in 1919. In 1932, new works aligned the west façade. During the Second World War, the buildings served as a triage camp for foreign workers and then as a repatriation centre. Closed permanently in 1970, the site was restored in the 1980s to become the Hotel de Région du Grand Est.

The architecture of the college combines baroque heritage (cloister, hooked capitals) and neoclassical additions (baths in full hanger, ground cornices). The two central courtyards, surrounded by vaulted galleries, structure the whole. The chapel of the Congregation, on the ground floor of the southern body, is distinguished by its openwork tympanum bays and finely worked columns. The interior staircases, made of stone or wrought iron, illustrate the care given to the details.

Ranked a Historic Monument, the site retains protected elements such as the old chapel and its decoration (1992 classification). The restorations of the 1980s preserved the facades and rearranged the interiors for administrative use, while integrating modern infrastructure such as an underground deliberations room and parking under the Alexis Square in Tocqueville.

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