Nancy

Nancy was the capital of the dukes of Lorraine. Its medieval old town, with the ducal palace, stood beside a newer town laid out on straighter streets under Duke Charles III. Walls and open ground separated the two, reflecting both the city's growth and the need to defend it in a contested borderland.

In 1477 Duke René II defeated Charles the Bold of Burgundy outside Nancy; Charles was killed, ending his attempt to hold the city. Centuries later Stanislas Leszczyński, the former king of Poland who became duke of Lorraine in 1737, set about reshaping the capital. He commissioned the architect Emmanuel Héré to create a royal square between the old and new towns. Inaugurated in 1755, it honoured his son-in-law Louis XV of France. On Stanislas's death in 1766, Lorraine passed to the French Crown.