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Mount Saint-Quentin (Saint-Quentin Mountain) is a summit that lays in Moselle Valley to the west of the Metz area. Due to its location, it played a strategic role in observation, protection, and communication for the city of Metz located below.


Geography


Situation

Mount Saint-Quentin is one of the summits of the Côtes de Moselle. It extends over the communes of
Scy-Chazelles Scy-Chazelles (; german: Sigach) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. The town is built on Mont St. Quentin near Metz. History The historical area of Scy-Chazelles was shared between the Gorze Abbey, the ...
,
Le Ban-Saint-Martin Le Ban-Saint-Martin (; ) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in northeastern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas Franc ...
,
Longeville-lès-Metz Longeville-lès-Metz (, literally ''Longeville near Metz''; ) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Notable people * Jeff Roland Jeff Roland (born 16 June 1969 in Longeville-lès-Metz, Moselle, Fr ...
,
Plappeville Plappeville (; german: Papolsheim) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Population See also * Communes of the Moselle department * Fort de Plappeville The Fort de Plappeville, or Feste Alvensleben, i ...
and Lessy. It has a height of 360 meters.


Access

The site is accessible by various roads leading to the Col de Lessy. Several tens of kilometers of trails are available to hikers to avoid wild routes, thus preserving the flora and fauna.


Fauna and flora

The fauna and flora are very diverse, with around 900 species of
butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
, as well as orchids, bats, etc., which are adapted to withstand extreme conditions of heat and drought. Many species and habitats are protected at European and local level.


Geology

The mountain has the same geological formation as the Moselle coast of which it is a part, i.e. a filtering calcareous subsoil and the south/southwest exposure of this coast, with nutrient-poor calcareous and calcareous grassland.


History

In 835, Drogon, the 40th bishop of Metz, brought back relics of Saint Quentin from S aint-Quentin en Vermandois. He had an oratory built at the top of the mountain where the relics were deposited. This oratory was replaced by a sanctuary which served as a parish for several centuries for the inhabitants of
Plappeville Plappeville (; german: Papolsheim) is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Population See also * Communes of the Moselle department * Fort de Plappeville The Fort de Plappeville, or Feste Alvensleben, i ...
, Scy Chazelles, Lessy, and
Longeville Longeville () is a commune in the Doubs department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. Geography Longeville is a long, narrow village, as its name implies. It is the highest commune in the canton. The cliffs of the Capucin ...
. In 1143, the church and its outbuildings came under the authority of the abbey of Gorze, and then in 1212, it was returned to the abbey of Saint-Symphorien. In the 13th century, it became part of the domain of the chapter of the Cathedral of Metz. On the mountain, there was the four-pillar sign of the high justice of the cathedral chapter, on the Saint-Paul banns of the villages of this parish, and the neighboring villages. The parish was then transferred to Scy. In the 13th century, the church was destroyed and replaced by a chapel and a hermitage, both of which also disappeared during the French Revolution. A Chappe optical telegraph station was installed on the mountain in 1797. Destroyed by the coalition troops in 1814 and then rebuilt, it ceased to function with the end of the Chappe line in 1852.


19th century

From 1867 to 1870, the army transformed Mount Saint-Quentin into an entrenched camp in order to distance the front line and reinforce the military fortifications of Metz. The Fortification of Saint-Quentin extends over 77 hectares. It is the largest fortified complex of the first Fortification belt of Metz. It consists of two main works, forts Diou and Girardin, linked by two connecting branches bordered by an artillery parapet. Fort Diou, which was renamed Ostfort by the Germans, was built east of Mount Saint-Quentin by the French from 1866 to 1870. It is trapezoidal in shape, has four bastions, 38 pieces, and can house a little over 600 men.


German annexation

The Germans completed the construction of the fort between 1872 and 1898, on the west side of Mount Saint-Quentin, by building a pentagonal fort that could accommodate 1,800 men. At first, it was named Fort Manstein, and then it was renamed Fort Girardin by the French. To the north is the
Fort de Plappeville The Fort de Plappeville, or Feste Alvensleben, is a military fortification located to the northwest of Metz in the commune of Plappeville. As part of the first ring of the fortifications of Metz, it is an early example of a Séré de Rivières ...
, covering 46 hectares. It worked as a defense for the western front and was linked to the fortified group of Saint-Quentin by the Lessy pass. The work was designed by Lieutenant-Colonel Séré de Rivières. During the German annexation, the Bismarck Tower of Metz was also built here, the only example in France of one of the 240 homonymous towers built at that time throughout the Reich in memory of Otto von Bismarck. The ''Metzer Zeitung'', a Metz newspaper founded in October 1871 by the Lang brothers, launched a subscription to build this memorial. It also proposed to rename the Mount Saint-Quentin to Bismarck Höhe, but this proposal was finally rejected. The tower is well preserved today, despite some recent acts of vandalism.


Second World War

During the Second World War, at the beginning of the
Battle of Metz The Battle of Metz was a battle fought during World War II at the city of Metz, France, from late September 1944 through mid-December as part of the Lorraine Campaign between the U.S. Third Army commanded by Lieutenant General George Patton and ...
, a fire broke out on the nights of 31 August to 1 September 1994, in two of the three casemates of Fort Saint-Quentin where were stored the most precious documents of the Metz library collections: 588 manuscripts disappeared out of a total of 1,475 inventoried in the 1879 General Catalogue and its 1933 supplement, as well as 165 incunabula out of 614 volumes of incunabula (representing 781 bibliographic units). Fort Diou suffered heavily during the 1944 fighting.


Saint-Quentin today

On 29 June 1994, Mont Saint Quentin and its surroundings obtained the status of classified site on 1 375 hectares. Almost half of the place (675 ha) was classified as a
Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectively ...
reserve. It is also one of the sites whose conservation or preservation is of interest in terms of its landscape, heritage, historical and ecological richness. After a study phase carried out by the Établissement public foncier de Lorraine concerning the security of the site and the former military buildings, the ''Eurométropole'' urban community of Metz decided on 12 December 2005 to develop and secure the site to make it a place for walking and for the enhancement of the military architectural heritage and environmental protection. The urban redevelopment company Cardem Demolitions (a subsidiary of Eurovia) and the demining company Géomines were selected by the army to secure the fortified group of Mont Saint-Quentin and the Fort of Plappeville.


Also see

* Moselle Valley * Metz * Metz Cathedral *
Fortifications of Saint-Quentin The Fortifications of Saint-Quentin, or '' '' form a fortification group in the Scy-Chazelles municipality located northwest of Metz on the Mont Saint-Quentin. Constituted by forts Diou and Girardin, the group is part of the first fortified belt ...
* Fortifications of Metz


References

{{reflist Moselle Metz Mountains of France France–Germany relations