Ligier Richier
Numerous legends surround the life of the “Master of St. Mihiel.” The only son of Jean Richier, a master-sculptor, he was born at St. Mihiel about 1500. Brought up as a Catholic, he was converted to Calvinism about 1560. There is a legend that Michael Angelo came to St. Mihiel, admired the work of the boy Ligier Richier, and took him to Rome; but it is known that Michael Angelo never visited Lorraine.
Ligier Richier, not being able to carry out his commissions single-handed, gathered around him apprentices and companions, who have been called his brothers. It is true that he had a son (Gerald) in 1534, and that the latter worked in his father’s studio, and had in his turn five sons, also sculptors, who settled in Nancy, Metz, Lyons and Grenoble. In 1764, in consequence of the persecution of the Protestants, he settled in Geneva, where he died about 1567.
Numerous groups of sacred figures, scattered over this district, attest the happy skill of Ligier Richier: a reredos of many-coloured stone in the church at Hattonchâtel (p. [38]); Christ Crucified between the Virgin and St. John, in the church at Génicourt, on the road from Verdun to St. Mihiel; Group of Notre Dame-de-Pitié, in the Sacré-Cœur Chapel of the church at Etain; a Calvary (six statues of wood variously coloured) in the chapel of the new cemetery at Briey; a large Christ carrying the Cross in the Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Pitié in the Church of St. Laurent, at Pont-à-Mousson (p. [92]); and lastly, in St. Mihiel itself, two of his masterpieces: “The Swooning Virgin,” in the church of St. Mihiel (p. [67]) and the important group, “The Sepulchre” in the Church of St. Etienne (p. [56]).
ST. ETIENNE’S CHURCH
Renaissance Bas-relief in St. Joseph’s Chapel.
ST. ETIENNE’S CHURCH
Renaissance Reredos in the Choir.
ST. MIHIEL. LIGIER RICHIER SQUARE
After visiting the Church of St. Etienne take on the right the Rue de l’Eglise, at No. 3, of which there is a curious old house.
Follow the continuation of the Rue de l’Eglise (Rue du Général Audéoud), which leads to the Place Ligier Richier.
The statue of Ligier Richier used to stand in the centre of this Place. It was removed by the Germans during the occupation.
ST. MIHIEL TOWN HALL
At the left-hand corner of the Place take the Rue de la Vaux. On the right of the street is the 17th century Hôtel-de-Ville, at the corner of the Rue Porte-à-Metz. On the left of the Rue Porte-à-Metz, stairs lead to the public garden called “La Promenade des Capucins,” which overlooks the town and the valley of the Meuse (fine panorama).
MONUMENT IN GERMAN CEMETERY (See below)
If the tourist enters St. Mihiel by the Rue Porte-à-Metz, he will see a large cemetery containing more than two thousand granite monuments, opposite the first houses of the town. Over six thousand Germans were buried there, killed for the most part during 1915, and a few in 1916.
No Frenchman, soldier or civilian, has been buried in this cemetery.
The cemetery can also be reached by returning along the Rue Porte-à-Metz as far as the last houses.
GERMAN CEMETERY AT THE PORTE-À-METZ ENTRANCE TO ST. MIHIEL (see above)
THE “MAISON AUX BOEUFS”
(No. 3, Rue de la Vaux.)
Return to the Rue de la Vaux, which take on the right.
At No. 3, on the right, is an old Renaissance house with curious gargoyles; and at No. 2, opposite, a curious old house.
At the beginning of Rue Carnot, which is a continuation of Rue de la Vaux, see the 16th century house called “Du Narrateur,” at No. 36.
Opposite this house, take the terraced Rue du Général Blaise (old house at No. 30).
Follow its continuation (Rue Haute des Fossés), at No. 7 of which is Ligier Richier’s house.
Take the Rue des Annonciades as far as the Avenue des Roches, which leads to the “Seven Rocks,” situated at the gates of the town (see p. 62).
RENAISSANCE HOUSE
(No. 36, Rue Carnot.)