NANCY, a town of north-eastern France, the capital for merly of the province of Lorraine, and now of the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, 219 M. E. of Paris on the railway to Stras bourg. Pop. (1931) 112,255.
At the close of the I 1 th century Odelric of Nancy, brother of Gerard of Alsace, possessed at Nancy a castle which enabled him to defy the united assaults of the bishops of Metz and Treves and the count of Bar. In the 12th century the town was sur rounded with walls, and became the capital of the dukes of Lor raine: and in 1477 Charles the Bold was defeated here by Rene II. (See Swiss WARs.) Refortified by Charles III., it was taken by the French in 1633. After the peace of Ryswick in 1697 it was restored to Duke Leopold. He founded academies, established manufactures and set about the construction of the new town. But it was reserved for Stanislas Leczinski, the last of the dukes of Lorraine, to make Nancy one of the palatial cities of Europe. The city, which became French in 1766, was occupied by the allies in 1814 and 1815, and put to ransom by the Prussians in 1870. After the Franco-German war the population was greatly increased by the immigration of Alsatians and of people from Metz and its district.
Although Nancy remained outside the area of actual fighting during the World War it was bombarded by German aeroplanes and long-range guns, but the damage was not very serious.
Nancy stands on the left bank of the Meurthe 6 m. above its junction with the Moselle and on the Marne-Rhine canal. The railway from Paris to Strasbourg skirts the city on the south-west side; other railways—to Metz, to Epinal by Mirecourt, to Château Salins—join the main line near Nancy, and make it an important junction. The town consists of two portions— the Ville-Vieille in the north-west, with narrow and winding streets, and the Ville-Neuve (i6th-i8th centuries) in the south-east with wide straight streets. Between the two lies the Place Stanislas, and on all sides rise imposing buildings of the i8th century— the town hall, episcopal palace, etc. A fine triumphal arch erected by Stanislas in honour of Louis XV. leads from the Place Stanis las to the Place Carriere, which forms a beautiful tree-planted promenade, containing at its further end the government palace (176o) now the residence of the general commanding the XX.
army corps, and adjoins the so-called Pepiniere (nursery) estab lished by Stanislas.
The cathedral in the Ville-Neuve, built in the i8th century, has a wide façade flanked by two dome-surmounted towers. Of particular interest is the church of the Cordeliers, in the old town, built by Rene II. about 1482 to commemorate his victory over Charles the Bold. Pillaged during the Revolution period, but restored to religious uses in 1825, it contains the tombs of the counts of Vaudemont. Here also is a chapel built at the be ginning of the 17th century to receive the tombs of the princes of the house of Lorraine. The church of St. Epvre, rebuilt be tween 1864 and 1874 on the site of an old church of the 13th, 14th and centuries, has a fine spire and belfry and good stained glass windows. Of the old ducal palace, begun in the 5th century by Duke Raoul and completed by Rene II., there remains but a single wing, partly rebuilt after a fire in 1871. The entrance to this wing, which contains the archaeological museum of Lorraine, is Gothic of the early i6th century. One of the greatest treasures of the collection is the tapestry found in the tent of Charles the Bold after the battle of Nancy. Of the old gates of Nancy the most ancient and remarkable is the Porte de la Craffe (1463). The town hall contains a museum of painting and sculpture.
Nancy is the seat of a bishop, a prefect, a court of appeal and a court of assizes, headquarters of the XX. army corps, and centre of an academie (educational division) with a university comprising faculties of law, medicine, science and letters, and a higher school of pharmacy. There are also tribunals of first in stance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, and a national school of forestry. The industries of Nancy include printing, brewing, cotton- and wool-spinning and the weaving of cotton and woollen goods, and the manufacture of tobacco (by the State), of boots and shoes, straw hats, pottery, casks, em broidery, machinery, motor cars and spare parts, engineering ma terial, farm implements and iron goods.