GENERAL POST OFFICE AND RAILWAY STATION
The Fortifications
From its position Metz was destined to become a stronghold of the first importance. The Romans fortified the town built by the Gauls, and erected the first citadel. The walls were preserved for a long time, and Bishop Robert, in the 10th century, utilised their remains. It was only in the 12th century that the new ramparts included the island formed by the two arms of the Moselle. They consisted of a high wall protected by sixty-eight towers. In 1552 the Duke of Guise commissioned an engineer, Pierre Strozzi, to restore these fortifications, which had withstood two sieges (1444 and 1552), and were in a dilapidated condition. Four years later (1556) Marshal de Vieilleville erected a citadel flanked by four bastions, on the site of the old convents. This citadel (which remained standing until 1802) stood on the site of the present Esplanade.
About a century later Vauban, fully aware of the strategic value of Metz, conceived a great scheme, which was carried out in the 18th century by an engineer, M. Cormontaigne. Vauban, for his part, added eleven new bastions to those which already guarded the citadel, but it was Cormontaigne who perfected the plans for inundating the valley of the Seille by utilising the waters of Lindre Pond.
Metz became finally one of the most formidable fortresses of Europe.