Engraved graffiti of Metz’s Saint-Étienne cathedral

« Ce doit être un besoin très fort: écrire. Écrire sur n’importe quoi, avec n’importe quoi. Sur le bois des meubles, sur le plâtre. Graphomanie. Ne pas disparaître, sans dire, sans crier quelque chose, n’importe quoi. » Henri Calet, Les murs de Fresnes, 1945.

This research focuses on graffiti incised in stone, these forgotten and stealthy writings. The ones we don’t see, don’t look at, know nothing about. It is a popular form of writing, a collective memory often ignored by History. Inside Metz’s Cathedral of Saint-Étienne, in the shadows, and highlighted sometimes by the sunray, there’s an amazing abundance of graffiti. Incised into the soft Jaumont stone characteristic of the region, they have never been recorded or studied. These vandal inscriptions, most of them votive, contain names, signatures, drawings of birds and human figures, and blend seamlessly with the architecture of the building. Dating from the fifteenth century to the present day, they could disappear as part of a future restoration, with their history still unknown. This research is about the heritage dimension and the revaluation of graffiti located inside a historical building. And finding a way to save them from being erased and forgotten.