On 19 May 2005, in the presence of Jacques Chirac, Helmut Schroder and Aleksandr Kwasniewski, the authorities of Nancy, capital of Lorraine, inaugurated the restored Place Stanislas, one of the glories of eighteenth-century urban planning. In ten months, this magnificent square (Fig. 1), designed by Emmanuel Here, with contributions by Barthelemy Guibal and Jean Lamour, has been cleaned, repaired and pedestrianised in order to commemorate the 250th anniversary of its commission by ...