Saint-Mihiel

Saint-Mihiel săN-mēyēlˈ [key], town (1993 est. pop. 5,435), Meuse dept., NE France, in Lorraine, on the Meuse River. Its chief manufactures are eyeglasses, plywood, and copper products. Saint-Mihiel grew around a Benedictine abbey founded in 709. Abbey buildings constructed in the 17th and 18th cent. are now used as a courthouse, library, and school. Points of interest include St. Michel church (17th cent.), with a door from Roman times, and the Church of St. Étienne, designed by Ligier Richier. In Sept., 1918, Saint-Mihiel was recovered from the Germans in the first battle of World War I in which American forces fought independently.

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