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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Abbatial Palace of Gorze, located in the upper part of the village near St Stephen's Church, was commissioned at the end of the seventeenth century by Abbé Philippe Eberhard Joseph of Loewenstein-Wertheim of Bavaria. Built between 1696 and 1699 under the direction of architect Pierre Bourdict, it embodies the Baroque style of the Grand Siècle, rare in Lorraine. The gardens and terraces, decorated with fountains and monumental staircases, were designed by Étienne Lastrasde. This palace replaced medieval abbey buildings, destroyed after the secularization of the abbey in 1572 and the permanent abandonment of its religious functions.

The abbey of Gorze, founded around 747 by St.Chrodegang, bishop of Metz, played a major role in Benedictine reform in Lotharingia and Germany around the year Mil. Destroyed during the wars of Burgundy, she was placed under the regime of commende before her secularization. The 18th century palace became a place of feasts for Messinian parliamentarians, especially after modernization work in 1745. Its vocation changed radically after the Revolution: sold as a national good in 1792, it will successively house a begging depot, a military hospital, a barracks, and then a health facility in the 20th century.

Ranked a Historic Monument in 1932 for its decorative elements (gateway, stairs, terraces), the palace was fully protected in 2006, including its gardens and courtyard. Its architecture combines a private Baroque chapel, in the right wing, and community spaces linked to the nearby Romano-Gothic collegiate. The 19th century transformations, such as the addition of a left wing in 1811, respected the initial volumes. Today unoccupied since the 1970s, it bears witness to the changes in a secular religious heritage.

The sculptures of the stairs and the landscape reflect the influence of the French Baroque, while the history of the site reveals the tensions between ecclesiastical power and state. The Congregation of the Daughters of Charity of Strasbourg, established in 1886, marked its last charitable vocation before its gradual abandonment. The successive protections highlight its heritage value, both architectural and historical, in the Lorrain landscape.

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