Imperial Quarter of Metz

Enfilade of apartment houses along the Avenue Foch, seen from the Avenue Joffre, in the Imperial Quarter of Metz. These are characteristic of much of the mixed-use structures in the district, built between 1902 and 1914.
The water tower near the main railway station, one of the delineators of the informal boundaries of the Imperial Quarter. It used to provide water for steam-powered locomotives.

The Imperial Quarter of Metz is a district of the city of Metz, in the région of Grand-Est, in eastern France, initially built between 1902 and 1914 by the government of the ruling German Wilhelmine Empire, during the period of annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. Originally named "Neue Stadt" (literally "new city"), it is today divided between the administrative district of New Ville and Metz-Centre.

It is principally represented by the "Imperial Triangle," delineated by the area in between the water tower of the main railway station, St. Therese's Church, and the Serpenoise Gate. But the district extends beyond this core to include other edifices of the same period, such as the Governor's Palace, situated on the Place Giraud, behind the Serpenoise Gate.

Aside from the more important Neustadt district of Strasbourg, the Imperial Quarter of Metz contains the most complete and best-preserved examples of urbanism under the German Empire. In Germany itself, the comparable districts of such cities often suffered the bombardment by Allied forces in the Second World War. The Imperial Quarter is remarkable for the multiplicity of architectural styles represented, despite the voluntary Germanization assumed by the city.