The Renaissance marks a new period of grandeur for Joinville: chosen as the capital by Claude de Lorraine, the first Duke of Guise, and his wife Antoinette de Bourbon, the city benefits from their patronage. The Guises then shape the city in their image. Claude modernizes the feudal castle, located on the hill overlooking the city, in the Renaissance style he discovered during the Italian wars, where he accompanied Francis I. He then builds a party pavilion (the current Grand Jardin castle) in the same style, which he surrounds with a vast garden praised by Remy Belleau, author of the Pléïade, in his Bergerie. Upon his death, his wife continues his work: she commissions, with her eldest son, François, the second Duke of Guise, the construction of a courthouse, and then founds the Sainte-Croix hospital with her second son Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine.

The church also benefits from their patronage (Renaissance portal). The whole city benefits from this momentum of reconstruction, especially necessary since the troops of Charles V set the city on fire in 1544. Numerous half-timbered houses bloom, as well as stone mansions, which will enjoy multiple embellishments during the 17th and 18th centuries. Joinville is then at the heart of the Wars of Religion since François, and then his son Henri de Guise, make the city one of the strongholds of the League.

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Jean de Joinville and his city
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