Nancy

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For other uses, see Nancy (disambiguation).

Administration
Commune of Nancy
Image:Nancy-place-stanislas-sued.jpg
Place Stanislas - Fountain of Amphitrite
Location

Coordinates	48°41′36″N, 06°11′04″E
Country	France
Région	Lorraine
Département	Meurthe-et-Moselle (préfecture)
Arrondissement	Nancy
Canton	Chief town of 4 cantons
Intercommunality	Communauté urbaine du Grand Nancy
Mayor	André Rossinot (2001-2008)
Statistics
Altitude	188 m–353 m (avg. 212 m)
Land area¹	15.01 km²
Population² (1999)	103,605
- Density (1999)	6,902/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	54395/ 54000
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: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).
Image:Flag of France.svg

Nancy (pronounced /nɑ̃si/ in French) (German: Nanzig) is a city and commune which is the préfecture (capital) of the Meurthe-et-Moselle département, in the Lorraine région of northeastern France. The metropolitan area (aire urbaine) 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)..

1 History
2 Geography
3 Sights
4 Culture
5 Transport
6 Miscellaneous
7 See also
8 External links
9 Art Nouveau-Related External Links

[edit] History

The earliest signs of human settlement in the area date back to 800 B.C. Early settlers were likely attracted by easily mined iron ore and a ford in the Meurthe river. A small fortified town named Nanciacum was built by Duke Gérard around 1050. It was sacked by Emperor Frédéric II, then rebuilt in stone over the next few centuries as it grew in importance as the capital of the duchy of Lorraine. It was before the walls of Nancy that Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was defeated and killed in 1477. In 1766, with the death of Duke Stanislas the duchy became a French province and Nancy remained its capital. When the région of Lorraine was created in the middle of the 20th century, Metz was chosen as its capital instead of Nancy.

[edit] Geography

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

[edit] Sights

The Place Stanislas [1] named after the Polish king and duke of Lorraine Stanislaw Leszczynski, 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 "Capital 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. we can find a lot of shops near to the station [Nancy Cathedral:[2],[3]]

[edit] Culture

At the turn of the 20th century, Nancy was a major centre of the Art Nouveau style.

[edit] Transport

Nancy is served by a 'tramway on tyres', in actual fact a guided busway based on Bombardier Transportation's Guided Light Transit technology. It has suffered many incidents and malfunctions, but now works without significant problems. This system is also used in Caen, and will be built in the city of Nijmegen.

[edit] Miscellaneous

Image:Stan-Bus-Bahn-Nancy.jpg

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 (province).