CORDELIERS' CHURCH

This is a votive church which was built after the victory over Charles the Hardy at the Battle of Nancy. The unostentatious Cordeliers church and its adjoining Fransiscan monastery were founded respectively in 1487 and 1482 by René II. It is still consecrated as a place of worship. Since 1939, it has housed sculptures, religious paintings and funeral monuments including the Renaissance tomb of René II and the recumbant figure of his wife Philippa de Gueldres, by the sculptor Ligier Richier. The Dukes of Lorraine are buried in the adjoining circular-shaped chapel (built by Charles III), modelled on the Medeci Chapel in Florence. A passageway round the cloister contains sculptures from tombs and religious paintings, which complete the visit and opens on to the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions.
In 1770 Marie-Antoinette stopped in Nancy in 1770 on her way to marry Louis XVI. She visited the chapel to pray on the tombs of her Hapsburg-Lorraine ancestors. Then in 1951 Archduke Otto of Hapsburg married Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen in the church where they also celebrated their golden wedding in 2001.