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Origin and history

The military hospital at Fort Moselle de Metz, built in 1732-1733 by engineer Louis de Cormontaigne, was part of a large fortification project commissioned to strengthen the stronghold of Metz, deemed essential by Louis XIV. It was provided for 912 beds but was able to accommodate up to 2,000, and served as an amphitheatre hospital to train military health personnel. Its architecture, organised around a quadrilateral with a wooded courtyard, was designed to optimize ventilation thanks to 194 windows.

The establishment played a key role in the training of French military surgeons, alongside hospitals in Lille, Strasbourg and Toulon. Between 1792 and 1815 he trained 700 surgeons for Napoleonic armies, two thirds of whom died in combat. In 1814-1815, after the Russian campaign, he became a dying man with more than 9,000 deaths (military and civilian), mainly typhus, in the face of an influx of 31,000 wounded or ill.

The hospital ceased its teaching activities in 1850 but remained a garrison hospital until 1912, when it was replaced by Legouest Hospital. Damaged by fire in 1774, it was reconstructed identically. Disused in 1946, its buildings were transferred to the city of Metz and now house public services. Its doors and facades, classified as historical monuments since 1937, bear witness to its military and medical history.

Fort Moselle was part of a double crown of fortifications designed by Vauban's disciple Cormontaigne (1728-1749) to protect Metz from invasions. Vauban himself stressed the strategic importance of the city as early as 1675: "The other squares cover the province, Metz covers the state. This defensive network, including the fort of Bellecroix, was designed to secure the fronts of the Seille and the Moselle, strengthening Metz' role as the military hub of the kingdom.

The construction of the hospital was part of a broader modernization of the medieval ramparts, partially demolished in the 18th century to give way to fortified structures adapted to new war techniques. Funded "at the expense of the King", the establishment reflected the monarchy's investment in military health infrastructure, then in full development to meet the needs of the military in the field.

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