Metz

Sister cities

• Saint-Denis
• Kansas City
• Nanjing
• Trier
• Luxembourg
• Djambala
• Tyler
• Hradec Králové
• Gloucester
• Chernivtsi
• Tangier
• Yichang

History

Metz has a recorded history dating back over 2,000 years. Before the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar in 52 BC, it was the oppidum of the Celtic Mediomatrici tribe. Between the 6th and 8th centuries, the city was the residence of the Merovingian kings of Austrasia. As the German Protestant Princes who traded Metz (alongside Toul and Verdun) for the promise of French military assistance, had no authority to cede territory of the Holy Roman Empire, the change of jurisdiction was not recognised by the Holy Roman Empire until the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. Under French rule, Metz was selected as capital of the Three Bishoprics and became a strategic fortified town. With creation of the departments by the Estates-General of 1789, Metz was chosen as capital of the Department of Moselle. Metz remained German until the end of the First World War, when it reverted to France. However, after the Battle of France during the Second World War, the city was annexed by Nazi Germany. During the 1950s, Metz was chosen to be the capital of the newly created Lorraine region. With the creation of the European Community and the later European Union, the city has become central to the Greater Region and the SaarLorLux Euroregion.

Geography

Metz is located on the banks of the Moselle and the Seille rivers, from the Schengen tripoint where the borders of France, Germany and Luxembourg meet. The terrain of Metz forms part of the Paris Basin and presents a plateau relief cut by river valleys presenting cuestas in the north–south direction. Metz and its surrounding countryside are included in the forest and crop Lorraine Regional Natural Park, covering a total area of . Lorraine has an oceanic climate tending to continental humid. The summers are warm and humid, sometimes stormy, and the warmest month of the year is July, when daytime temperatures average approximately . The winters are cold but not often snowy with temperature dropping to an average low of in January. Lows can be much colder through the night and early morning and rare snow can fall during a period extending from November to February. The length of the day varies significantly over the course of the year. The shortest day is 21 December with 7:30 hours of sunlight; the longest day is 20 June with 16:30 hours of sunlight. The median cloud cover is 93% and does not vary substantially over the course of the year. |source 2= Weather Atlas (sunshine hours) }}

Most-observed species

• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,454
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,249
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,196
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,173
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  1,163
• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  922
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  883
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  833

Most recent

• M 3 — 2008-09-28
  2 km SSW of Saarwellingen, Germany
• M 2.5 — 2008-08-27
  2 km S of Jeanménil, France
• M 2.5 — 2008-05-03
  1 km SE of Saarwellingen, Germany
• M 2.6 — 2008-04-30
  1 km NNW of Jeanménil, France
• M 2.5 — 2008-04-19
  1 km SSW of Saarwellingen, Germany
• M 4.5 — 2008-02-23
  3 km ENE of Saarwellingen, Germany