Place Stanislas is one of the finest 18th-century squares in Europe, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. The ensemble was designed by Héré de Corny in the 1750s: a broad rectangle of honey-coloured stone buildings punctuated at each corner by gilded wrought-iron gates and lanterns by Jean Lamour. At night, when the fountains are lit and the gilding catches the light, it is genuinely spectacular.
The square is pedestrianised and animated throughout the day. One side is occupied by the Hotel de Ville (city hall), another by the Opéra. The Museum of Fine Arts sits in one of the corner pavilions. A triumphal arch, the Arc Héré, connects the square northward to the long, formal Place de la Carrière and beyond to the Palais du Gouvernement — together, the three spaces form one of the great urban sequences of French classicism.