Nan­cy, the tem­po­rary res­i­dence of a king with­out a king­dom — Stanis­las Leszczyn­s­ki, lat­er to become Duke of Lor­raine — is para­dox­i­cal­ly the old­est and most typ­i­cal exam­ple of a mod­ern cap­i­tal where an enlight­ened monarch proved to be sen­si­tive to the needs of the pub­lic. Built between 1752 and 1756 by a bril­liant team led by the archi­tect Here, this was a care­ful­ly con­ceived project that suc­ceed­ed in cre­at­ing a cap­i­tal that not only enhanced the sovereign‘s pres­tige but was also func­tion­al.