[4] The cathedral treasury displays a rich collection assembled over the long centuries of the history of the Metz diocese and include sacred vestments and items used for the Eucharist.

Later artistic styles are represented by Charles-Laurent Maréchal (Romanticism), Roger Bissière (Tachism), Jacques Villon (Cubism), Marc Chagall, and Kimsooja.

[11] [12][13] The reconstruction of the cathedral in the Gothic style was proposed in about 1220 by the bishop of Metz, Conrad III of Scharfenberg, the chancellor of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor.

The work began under James of Lotharingia (French: Jacques de Lorraine, German: Jakob von Lothringen), the head of the chapter, who became bishop in 1239.

[14] The plan integrated the neighbouring Collegiate church of Our Lady into the western end of the cathedral, which resulted in the absence of a traditional west-end portal.

New more massive columns were added, and the triforium between the arcades and high windows was enlarged and strengthened to support the greater weight.

He was commissioned by the Royal Academy of Architecture to build a Neoclassical Doric portico which would serve as the main entrance to the cathedral.

[14] [17][18] In the years before the French Revolution in 1789, many of the Gothic tombs and monuments of the cathedral were removed, or put into lower aisles to accommodate the new classical taste.

Cathedral all en volute (vaults), where the wind sings as in a flute, and then responds the Mutte, the great voice of the Good Lord!

A young architect from Munich, Paul Tornow, became master of works of the cathedral in 1874 and held the position for thirty-two years, until 1906.

He then removed the collection of structures that had been built up against the walls, and restored the Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Mont-Carmel, which had previously belonged to the adjoining church of Notre-Dame-la-Rond.

With the French sculptor Auguste Dujardin, he visited twenty-one cathedrals in Burgundy, the Ile-de-France, Normandy and Champagne, taking photographs to act as the basis for his design.

He also rebuilt triangular gables at the top of the north and south facades in the late Gothic style, with spires and pinnacles.

That year the cathedral began to acquire modern works of furniture and art, including windows designed by Marc Chagall, Jacques Villon and other artists.

Moreover, unlike the French and German Gothic cathedrals having three portals surmounted by a rose window and two large towers, this one has a single porch at its western front.

The statue of Daniel was originally given the features of the German Emperor of the time, William II, who commissioned the Portal before the First World War.

Recent research found traces of orange, red and green pigment, indicating that the original portal sculpture was brightly colored.

[31] It has the traditional elevation of Gothic cathedrals of the 13th century, with three levels; an arcade of pointed arches supported by large pillars on the ground floor, 12.65 meters high; above that a triforium with windows.

The Transept and choir were built later than the nave, between 1487 and 1520, with elaborate decoration in the flamboyant style of the late Gothic in the tracery of the windows and the pillars.

[33] The Altar of Notre Dame de Lourdes made of red marble in 1911 by the Munich sculptor Max Heilmaler, It was subject to many later alterations.

The following picture presents the ground plan of Saint-Stephen of Metz and the position of the architectural elements: The chapels of the transept were decorated in the 14th century with murals on the columns, which served as epitaphs for prominent church figures.

[35] The early windows resemble mosaics, made of very small pieces of thick, deeply-colored glass bound together by thin strips of lead.

[36] The windows of Metz were made by the master craftsmen including Hermann von Münster in the fourteenth century, and Valentin Bousch in the sixteenth.

Then, in 1956, Robert Renaud, chief architect of the Center of National Monuments, commissioned a group of windows for the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament designed by the cubist-impressionist Jacques Villon, the brother of pioneer modernist Marcel Duchamp, then eighty years old.

They were commissioned at the same time that he was chosen by André Malraux, French Minister of Culture, to decorate the central dome of the Paris Opera.

The first, in Bay 17 of the west of the north transept, made between 1958 and 1961, depicts Genesis and the creation, the original sin, and the expulsion from Eden.

They were made between 1961 and 1967, and depict Old Testament scenes, including Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, the Sacrifice of Abraham, the Burning Bush, and other events.

The crypt displays the Graouilly, a large figure of the mythical dragon which was said in legend to been slain by Saint Clement in about 1000 AD.

The body of the current Graouilly is made of canvas covering a metal frame is from the 19th century, while the head is wood from an 18th-century effigy of the creature.

[40] The treasury of the cathedral, located in the old sacristy next to the south transept, lost most of its precious objects during the French Revolution, when they were taken away to be melted down for their gold or stripped of their jewels.