Amid snow flurries, we walked this afternoon south of the city center. The snowfall came and went, sometimes obscuring landmarks such as the spire of St. Martin's Catholic Presbytery, whose chimes ring through our apartment a couple of blocks away.A canal, frozen from the winter cold, forms the western edge of the "Imperial Quarter," a district with buildings intended by Kaiser Wilhelm II to "Germanize" Metz after the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. In particular, the main railway station (1907) and the main post office (1911) stand out as, well, large examples.
The station, built in a "Rhenish Romanesque" style out of yellow sandstone, features rounded arches, medieval-revival intricate borders reminiscent of some art-nouveau motifs, statues of medieval knights, and weighty proportions. The post office, built in a similar style out of red sandstone, stands even more massively, again with intricate borders on the arches but a simpler overall appearance. Here's more on the Imperial Quarter, the central station, and the post office.
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