Every design for Nancy

Through the Porte Stanislas, the eighteenth-century Ville-Neuve leads to the grand square named after Stanislaus I of Poland, built between 1752 and 1756 by Emmanuel Héré and now on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is the moment every visitor remembers, and the one every local takes for granted.

Nancy sits on the left bank of the Meurthe, a few kilometres upstream of where it joins the Moselle, pressed between the Forêt de Haye to the west and the river to the east; that tight setting makes it one of the densest cities in France. Early settlers came for easily mined iron ore and a ford across the Meurthe, and the dukes of Lorraine made it their seat around the Ducal Palace in the Old Town. Later the École de Nancy filled the streets with Art Nouveau; the Villa Majorelle is one of its best-known houses, and the Musée Lorrain and the Musée des Beaux-Arts keep the city's treasures.

On the map, anyone who grew up here can trace the line from the old ducal town to the eighteenth-century squares, and on to the river beyond.