Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Chapel of Mercy, located on Rue de la Chèvre in Metz, is an ancient Catholic building dating from the late 12th or early 13th century. Originally, this vaulted room does not seem to have been conceived as a place of worship: only the tympanum of the door, adorned with a sculpture by Saint Michael, attests to a religious vocation. The architectural ensemble, including a Romanesque rosette and two windows, illustrates the transition between Romanesque and civil Gothic art in Metz, comparable to the chapel of Petit-Saint-Jean of the same period.

Integrated from the Renaissance into a larger complex, the chapel was surrounded until 1962 by 16th century buildings, including a circular staircase tower and unique loggia galleries in the city. In the 19th century, the site was purchased by the sisters of Mercy, who moved to boarding school. Neo-Renaissance elements, such as an external staircase imitating ancient architecture, were added at the beginning of the 20th century. The boarding school closed in 1962, and most of the buildings were destroyed in the 1960s and 1970s to build the primary school of Notre-Dame, leaving only the chapel.

Ranked a historical monument on December 18, 1968, the chapel is today the only vestige of an architectural complex whose history remains partially obscure. Its tympanum and rosacea, although partially disappeared, still bear witness to the evolution of medieval styles in Metz. The site, initially linked to a convent-boarding, also reflects the urban and religious transformations of the city, marked by massive destruction in the twentieth century.

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