Hotel du Departement Charleville-Mézières

The École royale du génie de Mézières (Royal Engineering School of Mézières) was a military engineering school in what is now

Charleville-Mézières or ''Carolomacérienne'' , image flag=Flag of Charleville Mezieres.svg Charleville-Mézières () is a commune of northern France, capital of the Ardennes department, Grand Est. Charleville-Mézières is located on the banks of the river Meuse. ...

, France. It was founded in 1748 on proposal of the

comte d'Argenson Marc-Pierre de Voyer de Paulmy, comte d'Argenson (16 August 1696, Paris22 August 1764, Paris) was a French politician. Biography D'Argenson, a younger son of Marc-René de Voyer de Paulmy d'Argenson (1652–1721), was born on 16 August 1696. ...

, then Secretary of state for War, and Brigadier Nicolas de Chastillon, commander of the citadel at

, with the aim of modernizing the town's fortifications. It trained a total of 542 military engineers until its merging with the École d'Application de l'Artillerie de Metz during the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...

. Since 1800 its buildings have housed the Hôtel du Département des Ardennes, which manages the Ardennes department.

Building

It was housed in the palais des Tournelles, the residence for the governor of Mézières. Philip III of Burgundy built the first palais des Tournelles in 1409, which was rebuilt by

Louis Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers Louis de Gonzague, Duke of Nevers ( it, Ludovico, italic=no or Luigi di Gonzaga-Nevers; 18 September 1539 – 23 October 1595) was a soldier, governor and statesman during the French Wars of Religion. Of Italian extraction, his father and br ...

in 1566.

Henry III of France Henry III (french: Henri III, né Alexandre Édouard; pl, Henryk Walezy; lt, Henrikas Valua; 19 September 1551 – 2 August 1589) was King of France from 1574 until his assassination in 1589, as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of ...

lodged at the palais in 1583 and after being largely destroyed by fire in 1697 it was again rebuilt in 1732. The school moved in 1753 and was promoted to a royal school on 31 December 1776. The present building was built between 1780 and 1789. In October 1791 its students met La Fayette. It was transferred to

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

in 1793 before being suppressed the following year.

External links

History of the école du génie

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecole Royale Genie Mezieres Military academies of France Military training establishments of France Buildings and structures in Ardennes (department)