Museums, galleries and heritage in Grand Est

Grand Est was formed by merging Alsace, Lorraine and Champagne-Ardenne, and this triple identity is visible everywhere: half-timbered Alsatian villages, the industrial and military heritage of Lorraine, and the champagne houses around Reims and Épernay. The region's location on the French-German border has made it a repeated battleground, a history preserved at sites such as the Mémorial de Verdun and the Citadelle Souterraine de Verdun, both dedicated to the 1916 battle that left the surrounding hills scarred with craters.

Further east, the Mémorial Alsace-Moselle in Schirmeck examines the more specific and painful history of Alsace-Moselle's repeated annexations between 1870 and the aftermath of the Second World War, a subject rarely addressed elsewhere with such regional precision.

Strasbourg combines its medieval Grande-Île with the imperial German-era Neustadt district, together inscribed as Strasbourg, Grande-Île et Neustadt, one of the rare UNESCO sites to protect a 19th-century urban extension as such. The Musée historique de la ville de Strasbourg traces nine centuries of the city's history inside a former 1587 slaughterhouse building.

Nancy is defined by its 18th-century royal squares, the Places Stanislas, de la Carrière et d'Alliance, and by its role as the birthplace of the École de Nancy Art Nouveau movement, documented at the Musée de l'École de Nancy.

Colmar and Mulhouse round out the Alsatian side of the region: Colmar around the Grunewald altarpiece housed at the Musée Unterlinden, and Mulhouse as an industrial city whose textile past is documented nearby at the Parc de Wesserling.

Reims was the traditional coronation city of French kings, a role reflected in its Cathédrale Notre-Dame, ancienne abbaye Saint-Rémi et palais du Tau, a gothic ensemble ranking among the most significant in France. Nearby, the Musée Automobile Reims-Champagne gathers around 160 vehicles and ranks among the five most important automobile museums in the country.

René Lalique settled his glassworks in the Alsatian village of Wingen-sur-Moder, where the Musée Lalique now traces his production from Art Nouveau jewelry to later crystal work. In sculpture, Colmar-born Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, best known for designing the Statue of Liberty, is honored at the Musée Bartholdi.

Nancy's contribution to French decorative arts extends beyond its Art Nouveau museum: the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, located directly on Place Stanislas, holds paintings spanning several centuries alongside a notable glass collection.