Metz leaves room for competition. The station of the prefecture of the city of Moselle was chosen by Internet users as the most beautiful in France during the first three editions of the “Battle & Stations” competition organized by Gares & Connexions, the subsidiary of the SNCF network. For the first time since the competition launched in 2017, the train station is not part of the final selection.
According to a press release from Gares & Connexions, it is a “common will” of the organization but also of the City itself. However, the three-time defending station has not been forgotten, as she will play the role of “godmother” for the 2022 edition of the competition. “As such, the city of Metz will be associated with the delivery of the prize to the new great champion”, indicates the organizing structure.
Finals against Saint-Brieuc and Limoges-Bénédictins
If the Moselle department is no longer represented by the absence of Metz and Nancy, the Grand Est region retains standard-bearers thanks to the presence of the Reims, Strasbourg and Troyes stations. Whether one of them will have the stuff of the Metz building to finish on the top step of the podium remains to be seen. Indeed, during the two previous finals of the competition, the Metz station had beaten particularly tall buildings, such as the Saint-Brieuc or Limoges-Bénédictins stations.
The Metz station is distinguished above all by the material it is made of: Niderviller sandstone worked in the Neo-Romanesque style. It was built from 1905 and inaugurated in 1908 by the Imperial General Directorate of Alsace-Lorraine Railways, which corresponds to the period of annexation of the two departments by Germany. Its facade, whose decorations evoke the conquests of the German Empire, its period stained glass windows, its passenger room, its bas-reliefs, its interior sideboard and its interlocking arcades are so many other arguments that have favored the domination of the Metz station until now. about the competition.
Source: BFM TV
