Porte Stanislas, City gate in Nancy, France
Porte Stanislas is a Doric city gate built in 1761 by Richard Mique at the western end of rue Stanislas. It has a tall central arch flanked by two lower arches, paired round columns, relief panels with seated figures, and an attic band with four standing statues and the carved word "LÉOPOLD". It replaced an earlier arch by Emmanuel Héré.
The gate was designed in 1761 by Richard Mique as part of King Stanislas' plan to connect the old and new sections of Nancy. It served as a key element in transforming the city into an enlightened urban center with modern planning.
The gate is named after Stanislas Leszczynski (1677–1766), king of Poland, father-in-law of Louis XV and duke of Lorraine and Bar. An inscription on one face of the attic still records the name Porte de la Montagne, given during the Revolution. The German sources add that Duke Stanislaus commissioned it in 1761 in honour of his patron saint, Stanislaus of Kraków.
Visitors can walk through this passage daily with free access connecting Place Stanislas and the adjacent park. The structure serves as a natural landmark for navigating the historic center.
The attic still bears an inscription reading "Porte de la Montagne", the name the gate took during the French Revolution. In summer 1792, with Prussian invasion feared, it was hastily fortified with an iron grille and wooden palisades, and a fountain then stood just outside it on the faubourg side.
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