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Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc Biography

(1814 - 1879)

(born Jan. 27, 1814, Paris, France—died Sept. 17, 1879, Lausanne, Switz.) French Gothic Revival architect, restorer, and writer. After studying architecture and training as an archaeologist, he was placed in charge of restoring the abbey church at Vézelay (1840). He assisted in restoring the Sainte-Chapelle (1840) and Notre-Dame de Paris (1845) and supervised the restoration of many other medieval buildings, including Amiens Cathedral (1849) and the fortifications of Carcassonne (1852). In his later restorations he often added new elements of his own design, intrusions for which he was criticized in the 20th century. He is most distinguished for his writings, which include the Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle (1854–68) and Entretiens sur l'architecture (1858–72). His theories of rational architectural design linked the revivalism of the Romantic period to 20th-century Functionalism and influenced the architects of the Chicago School.