Gare de Metz-Ville

Metz-Ville
SNCF Railway station
The railway station of Metz on the Général de Gaulle square
Location	1, place du Général de Gaulle, Metz
Coordinates	49°06′35″N 6°10′38″E / 49.1098°N 6.1772°E / 49.1098; 6.1772Coordinates: 49°06′35″N 6°10′38″E / 49.1098°N 6.1772°E / 49.1098; 6.1772
Owned by	SNCF
Line(s)	Metz–Luxembourg railway
Platforms	9
Construction
Architect	Jürgen Kröger
History
Opened	17 August 1908
Traffic
Passengers (2009)	6.8 million)
Services
Preceding station   SNCF   Following station Meuse TGV toward Paris-Est TGV Thionville toward Luxembourg Terminus TGV Nancy-Ville toward southeastern France Thionville toward Brussels Hbf EuroCity Strasbourg toward Zürich Hbf Hayange toward Épernay Intercités Terminus Thionville toward Luxembourg Intercités night trains Nancy-Ville toward Nice or Portbou Ars-sur-Moselle toward Nancy-Ville TER Lorraine 1 Metz-Nord toward Luxembourg Terminus TER Lorraine 15 Peltre toward Saarbrücken TER Lorraine 21 Rémilly toward Strasbourg TER Lorraine 27 Hagondange toward Longwy TER Lorraine 28 Onville toward Bar-le-Duc TER Lorraine 30 Hagondange toward Verdun

The Gare de Metz-Ville is the main railway station serving the city of Metz, capital of Lorraine, France. Sometimes spoken of as the Station Palace as it displays the apartments of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II, Metz station has been registered as a Historic Monument since 15 January 1975. This designation gives legal protection to the station's facade, the roof, the departure hall, the honorary lounge, and the former station restaurant with its interior decorations.

The station in Metz was a central point of plans for a new urban area in Metz, which was built during the first annexation of Metz by Otto von Bismarck into the German Empire. In order to "germanify" the city, Kaiser Wilhelm II decided upon the creation of a new district shaped by a distinctive blend of Germanic architecture. The district was conceived by German architect Conrad Wahn and is now commonly called the Imperial District.

The railway station constitutes the cornerstone of this district, not far from the historic downtown. Its first aim was military usage and it had to answer a strategic need: For the success of the Schlieffen plan, the Kaiser had to be able to transport his troops from France to Russia in only 24 hours. This has resulted in a sizeable station with platforms large enough to accommodate troops on foot and on horseback. So the Metz railway station was directly linked to Berlin via the Cannons Railway.

The railway station is a 350-metre-long neo-Romanesque building built between 1905 and 1908 by German architect Jürgen Kröger, assisted by the architects Jürgensen and Bachmann, as well as by the sculptor Schirmer. It was built in the pale grey stoneware of Niderviller, in marked contrast to the other buildings of the city, which are mainly built in yellow limestone. Because of the swampy soil of the area, the station and its water tower are built on 3,034 foundation piles which run from ten to seventeen metres deep, made from the system of reinforced concrete which had just been developed by the French engineer François Hennebique.