150 Churches in Paris and elsewhere

  Metz, France, St Stephen's cathedral - making dragons flee Nicely renovated Gothic cathedral - building began in 13th century; stained glass by Marc Chagall, allegedly better known for floating lovers and green violinists. I actually worked in the town of Metz in the East of France for a couple of years in the late nineties, but this was before I was heavily into churches, so I found I remembered nothing about this cathedral when, in 2024, I was in town for a day’s work. The church includes commemoration of the story of Saint Clément, a gentle medieval dragon-tamer, whose stole was enough to persuade Billy dragon to make tracks (dragon suggestion shown). There is a fabulous pulpit which looks like my grandfather’s radiogram, as well as a grander one, and a Latin inscription reminding you to go to confession(John 20:23). I found the modern matching altar table and lectern particularly beautiful. This is the church in France with the largest area of stained glass, and contains more...