Grange des Antonistes, a medieval warehouse below the cathedral

The Antonines, hospitallers from the Dauphiné

The Antonines, also known as Antonists, began around 1095 at Saint-Antoine-en-Viennois, in the Dauphiné, as a lay brotherhood devoted to the sick. Their speciality was the burning sickness, or Saint Anthony's fire, now known to come from ergot of rye. They became a religious order in the 13th century, then canons regular in 1297, lived notably on alms and on raising Saint Anthony's pigs, and spread across Europe through commanderies. The one in Metz, founded in the first half of the 14th century according to the Mérimée database, was part of this network. The sources consulted say little about its daily life.

A great crenellated cube on the rue des Piques

What strikes you about this barn is its almost cubic shape, which the Mérimée record compares to the establishments of the religious and military orders in the Holy Land. Wikipedia describes a large crenellated volume on four levels, windows with trefoil tympanums and, at the south-east corner, a lookout post likened to those of some palaces in Siena. The building was altered in the 18th and 19th centuries, so not everything you see is medieval. University research on the medieval city counts it among the three crenellated barns still standing in Metz, along with the Grenier de Chèvremont and the Saint-Esprit barn.

Neither museum nor public hall: a barn now in private hands

Despite its age, the building is not a place to visit. Wikipedia traces a series of very practical uses: grain store, municipal warehouse, then state offices. Such storage needs, in a merchant city enriched by its fairs and currency in the 13th and 14th centuries, explain these large volumes. The Mérimée record, updated in 2026, states that the State sold the building to a medical practice in 2012 or 2013, and lists it as private property. Wikipedia, for its part, mentions owners who rent to local businesses. None of the sources consulted links it to a museum.

What you can see from the street

So the barn is best enjoyed from the rue des Piques, without going in. Look up at the battlements, then find the south-east corner and its lookout post. The listing also covers neighbouring buildings: to the right of the barn, a courtyard door with a carved tympanum, and to the left, a two-bay hall, both from the 14th century. They stand on private property, which you should not enter uninvited. The spot fits easily into a walk around the Piques quarter, below the cathedral, which can continue on to the Grenier de Chèvremont, another of the city's barns.

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