Chapelle Saint-Genest de Metz, Medieval chapel in historic center of Metz, France.
The former Chapelle Saint-Genest is a disused Catholic chapel on the slopes of the Sainte-Croix hill, behind the Fournirue in Metz. Built of squared light tan stone, its facade has three tall narrow windows with dark glass beneath a shallow gable, with a circular stone-framed opening above. A plain, flat-topped square tower rises at the left, and a low iron fence crosses the foreground.
The building began in the 12th century and was completed over generations, taking its present form by the 16th century. In 1565, it came under the ownership of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem.
The chapel stands at the corner of rue d'Enfer and the Jurue, where the house in which François Rabelais stayed from 1545 to 1547 once stood; the square in front now serves as the terrace of the café Mathis. The building is dedicated to Saint Genest, an actor martyred in Rome.
The chapel stands on the slopes of the Sainte-Croix hill, behind the Fournirue, at the corner of rue d'Enfer and rue de la Jurue. The building is disused and not open as a place of worship; the square in front, used as the terrace of the café Mathis, gives the closest view of the facade and its square tower.
The square keep tower rising beside the facade is a remnant of the 12th–13th-century Gothic or even Romanesque mansion that stood here before the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem turned the property into a chapel in 1565. The building was listed as a monument historique on 9 December 1930.
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