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Nancy

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Dictionary: Nan·cy   (năn'sē, näN-sē') pronunciation
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A city of northeast France east of Paris. The capital of the duchy and region of Lorraine, the city passed to France in 1766. It was heavily bombed in World War II. Population: 105,000.

 

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Columbia Encyclopedia: Nancy
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Nancy (näNsē'), city (1990 pop. 102,410), capital of Meurthe-et-Moselle dept., NE France, on the Meurthe River and the Marne-Rhine Canal. It is the administrative, economic, and educational center of Lorraine. Situated at the edge of the huge Lorraine iron fields, Nancy is an industrial city manufacturing chemicals, clothing, processed food, and machinery. It is one of eight cities specially targeted by the government for urban development. In the city are a noted fine arts museum, an academy of fine arts, and a large university (founded 1854). Nancy grew around a castle of the dukes of Lorraine and became the duchy capital in the 12th cent. In 1477, Charles the Bold of Burgundy was defeated and killed at the gates of Nancy by Swiss troops and the forces of René II of Lorraine. The major part of the center of Nancy, a model of urban planning and a gem of 18th-century architecture, was built during the liberal reign of Stanislaus I, duke of Lorraine (reigned 1738-66) and ex-king of Poland. Nancy passed to the French crown in 1766. In 1848 it was one of the first cities to proclaim the republic. From 1870 to 1873 it was occupied by the Germans following the Franco-Prussian War, and it was partially destroyed in World War I. Points of interest include the Place Stanislas, the Place de la Carrière, an 18th-century cathedral, and the 16th-century ducal palace. The Church of Cordeliers (15th cent.) houses the magnificent tombs of the princes of Lorraine.

Wikipedia: Nancy
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Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Wikipedia
For other uses, see Nancy (disambiguation).

Coordinates: 48°41′37″N 6°11′05″E / 48.6936°N 6.1846°E / 48.6936; 6.1846

Commune of Nancy
Nancy-place-stanislas-sued.jpg
Place Stanislas - Fountain of Amphitrite
Location
Nancy is located in France
Nancy
Administration
Country France
Region Lorraine
Department Meurthe-et-Moselle
Arrondissement Nancy
Intercommunality Greater Nancy
Mayor André Rossinot (Radical-UMP)
(2008–2014)
Statistics
Elevation 188–353 m (620–1,160 ft)
(avg. 212 m/700 ft)
Land area1 15.01 km2 (5.80 sq mi)
Population2 105,400  (2005)
 - Density 7,022 /km2 (18,190 /sq mi)
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code 54395/ 54000
Website http://www.nancy.fr/
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Nancy (French pronunciation: [nɑ̃si]; archaic German: Nanzig; Luxembourgish: Nanzeg) is a city in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France, and formerly the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine, and then the French province of the same name.

The city is the head of the department. The metropolitan area of Nancy had a population of 410,509 inhabitants at the 1999 census, 103,602 of whom lived in the city of Nancy proper (105,100 inhabitants in the city proper as of 2004 estimates).

Contents

History

The earliest signs of human settlement in the area date back to 800 BC. Early settlers were likely attracted by easily mined iron ore and a ford in the Meurthe River. A small fortified town named Nanciacum (Nancy) was built by Gerard, Duke of Lorraine around 1050.

Nancy was conquered by Emperor Frederick II in the 13th century, then rebuilt in stone over the next few centuries as it grew in importance as the Capital of the Duchy of Lorraine. Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was defeated and killed in the Battle of Nancy in 1477.

With the death of Duke Stanislas in 1766, the duchy became a French province and Nancy remained its capital.

As unrest surfaced within the French armed forces during the French Revolution, a full-scale mutiny took place in Nancy in later summer 1790. A few reliable units lay siege to the town and shot or imprisoned the mutineers.

In 1871, Nancy remained French when Prussia annexed Alsace-Lorraine. The flow of refugees reaching Nancy doubled its population in three decades. Artistic, academic, financial and industrial excellence fostered, setting what is still the Capital of Lorraine's trademark nowadays.

Nancy was freed from Nazi Germany by the U.S. Third Army in September 1944, during the Lorraine Campaign of World War II (see Battle of Nancy (1944)).

In 1988, Pope John Paul II visited Nancy. In 2005, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerard Schröder and Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski inaugurated the renovated Place Stanislas.

Geography

The neighboring communes of Nancy are: Jarville-la-Malgrange, Laxou, Malzéville, Maxéville, Saint-Max, Tomblaine, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, and Villers-lès-Nancy.

Sights

The Place Stanislas[1] named after the king of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and duke of Lorraine Stanisław Leszczyński, Place de la Carrière, and Place d'Alliance were added on the World Heritage Sites list by the UNESCO in 1983.

The "École de Nancy", a group of artists and architects founded by the glassmaster and furniture maker Émile Gallé, worked in the Art Nouveau style at the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century. It was principally their work which made Nancy a centre of art and architecture that rivaled Paris and helped give the city the nickname "Capitale de l'Est." The city still possesses many Art Nouveau buildings (mostly banks or private homes). Furniture, glassware, and other pieces of the decorative arts are conserved at the Musée de l'École de Nancy, which is housed in the 1909 villa of Eugène Corbin, a Nancy businessman and supporter of the Art Nouveau there.

The old city centre's heritage dates from the Middle Ages to the 18th century. The cathedral of Nancy is a fine example of 18th century architecture. The surroundings of the train station are a busy commercial area.

There is also a major botanical garden in Nancy, the Jardin botanique du Montet. Other gardens of interest include the city's earliest botanical garden, the Jardin Dominique Alexandre Godron, and various other public gardens and places of interest including the Pépinière and Parc Sainte-Marie (public gardens).

There is also the aquarium, the Musée de l'École de Nancy, the Musée des Beaux-Arts and the Musée Lorrain amongst others.

A panoramic view of Place Stanislas

Culture

The city is known for this World Heritage buildings : The Place Stanislas (XVIII°) which was opened April 2005 by Jacques Chirac after refurbishment.

At the turn of the 20th century, Nancy was a major centre of the Art Nouveau with the school of Nancy. The city possess a unique and interesting Musée de l'École de Nancy (School of Nancy Museum) with artworks from Émile Gallé, Louis Majorelle, Daum crystal...

Nancy also possesses many museums :

The city is also the seat of the Diocese of Nancy and the home of the Opéra national de Lorraine.

Transport

Public transport in Nancy is provided by Service des Transports de l'Agglomération Nancéienne (STAN),[2] an operator in the Veolia Transport.

The most heavily used route, T1, is a so-called 'tramway on tyres', which is actually a guided busway based on Bombardier Transportation's Guided Light Transit (GLT) technology and using articulated trolleybuses. In addition to diesel buses, Nancy has been served by trolleybuses since 1982, but in 2000 the three-route trolleybus system was reconfigured into a single, longer route and with a surface guidance system added (GLT, or TVR in French). The guidance systems covers about two-thirds of the approximately 10-km route, and the trolleybuses are separated from other traffic over that portion of the route, speeding travel times. The guided-trolleybus service is called the Tram by STAN. During its first two years, the new system suffered many incidents and malfunctions of the guidance system, but now works without significant problems. STAN also operates around 20 conventional bus routes.

Universities and colleges

This is a list of institutions of higher learning in Nancy.

Universities contribute to Nancy's prestigious atmosphere making it reach the top of many "Quality of Life" rankings by the French press. As figures demonstrate, Nancy is among France's largest cities :[citation needed]

  • # 1 Largest ratio of students (21%), ahead of Lille
  • # 2 Highest rate of executives (25%), after Paris
  • # 2 Highest ratio of doctors in medicine, after Montpellier
  • # 3 Largest protected architectural old town
  • # 3 Highest rate of graduates
  • # 4 Highest rate for movie theatre attendance
  • # 5 Highest income per capita, after Paris/Ly./Bx/Nantes
  • # 5 Largest absolute number of students
  • # 6 For sports (L'Equipe)
  • # 8 Less congested traffic
  • # 9 Cheapest real estate
  • # 9 Lowest unemployment rate
  • # 10 Safest city
  • # 10 Cleaner air

Sports

Nancy is home to two of the three profesional sport clubs in Lorraine: AS Nancy-Lorraine in football, and SLUC Nancy in basketball (the first one is 2nd league FC Metz).

AS Nancy-Lorraine's Hall of Fame includes triple-Ballon d'Or and Uefa President Michel Platini, Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, 1998 World Champion Aimé Jacquet, 2000 European Champion Roger Lemerre, 1998 African Ballon d'Or Mustapha Hadji, Irish legend Tony Cascarino, 1986 European Cup winner Sacha Zavarov and 1958 World Cup Semi-finalist Roger Piantoni.

SLUC Nancy won the last Korac European Cup in 2002 and became Champion of France in 2008.

Miscellaneous

Nancy's guided busway, known as the 'tramway on tyres'
Place Stanislas - Arc Héré
Place Stanislas - Fountain of Neptune

The N ray, which turned out to be a figment of local physicist René-Prosper Blondlot's imagination, was named for Nancy.

Nancy's archaic German name is Nanzig, and a similar form Nanzeg is still used in Luxembourgish.

The motto of the city is Non inultus premor, Latin for "No one touches me with impunity". This is very similar to the Scottish motto Nemo me impune lacessit, and both are references to the thistle, which is a symbol of both Scotland and Lorraine.

Native sons and daughters

Nancy was the birthplace of:

Hometown of these fictional characters

Sister cities

Notes

  1. ^ Images of the Place Stanislas
  2. ^ STAN website (French only)
  3. ^ Université Henri Poincaré - website
  4. ^ Université Nancy 2 - website
  5. ^ French-German Sciences Po campus - website

See also

External links

Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Nancy

Art Nouveau-related links

v • d • e
World Heritage Sites in France

Abbey Church of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe · Amiens Cathedral · Belfries of Belgium and France (with Belgium) · Bordeaux · Bourges Cathedral · Canal du Midi · Carcassonne · Cathedral of Chartres · Cathedral of Notre-Dame, former Abbey of Saint-Remi and Palace of Tau, Reims · Cistercian Abbey of Fontenay · Palace of Fontainebleau and Park · Fortifications of Vauban · Great Saltworks of Salins-les-Bains and Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans · Gulf of Porto (Calanches de Piana • Gulf of Girolata • Scandola Reserve) · Lagoons of New Caledonia · Le Havre · Loire Valley between Sully-sur-Loire and Chalonnes · Lyon · Mont Saint-Michel and its Bay · Palace and Park of Versailles · Papal Palace, Episcopal Ensemble and Avignon Bridge, Avignon · Paris – Banks of the Seine · Place Stanislas, Place de la Carrière and Place d'Alliance, Nancy · Pont du Gard · Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley · Provins · Pyrénées - Mont Perdu (with Spain) · Arles, Roman and Romanesque Monuments · Roman Theatre and its Surroundings and Triumphal Arch of Orange · Routes of Santiago de Compostela · Saint-Émilion · Strasbourg – Grande Île · Vézelay Church and Hill

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Did you mean: Nancy (city, France), Nancy (character), Nancy (KY), Jean-Luc Nancy, nancy, Nancy (first name), Sister Nancy, Nancy (comics), Nancy (Oliver Twist), Nancy (With the Laughing Face)

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
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