Nancy's Stanislaw Squares, France (21/418)

Nancy, the temporary residence of a king without a kingdom - Stanislas Leszczynski, who later became the Duke of Lorraine - is paradoxically the oldest and most typical example of a modern capital where an enlightened monarch proved to be conscious of the needs of the public. Constructed between 1752 and 1756 by a brilliant team under the direction of the architect Héré, this was a project of extreme coherence which succeeded perfectly in linking the desire for prestige with the king's concern for functionality.