This statue on the Metz Cathedral has a story that reflects the town’s tumultuous political history. It forms part of the grand, gothic West Portal, which is covered in dozens of statues of saints, prophets, and angels. At first glance, it looks—like the rest of the cathedral—to date from the High Middle Ages. But the portal was actually built in 1903, during the period that Metz was part of the German Empire. The original medieval doorway had been destroyed in the 1750s (when Metz was French) by Renaissance architects who…
