Jules Hardouin-Mansart

Jules Hardouin-Mansart (16 April 1646 – 11 May 1708) was a French architect whose work is generally considered to be the apex of French Baroque architecture, representing the power and grandeur of Louis XIV. Hardouin-Mansart was one of the most important European architects of the seventeenth century.

Born Jules Hardouin in Paris, he studied under his renowned great-uncle François Mansart, one of the originators of the classical tradition in French architecture; Hardouin inherited Mansart's collection of plans and drawings and adopted his well-regarded name. He also learned from Libéral Bruant, architect of the royal veteran's hospital in Paris known as Les Invalides. Hardouin-Mansart served as Louis XIV's chief architect, first enlarging the royal château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, then at Versailles from 1675. He became the surintendant des Bâtiments du Roi (Superintendent of royal buildings). He designed all the extensions and rebuildings at Versailles for the King, including the north and south wings, the Royal Chapel (with Robert de Cotte, 1710), and the celebrated Hall of Mirrors decorated by Charles Le Brun, his collaborator. Outside the château proper, he built the Grand Trianon and the Orangerie, as well as subsidiary royal dwellings not far away, such as the Château de Marly (begun in 1679).

Among his other best-known works, in Paris, are the Pont-Royal, the Église Saint-Roch, the Invalides great domed royal chapel Église du Dôme des Invalides dedicated to Saint Louis (designed in 1680), the Place des Victoires (1684–86) followed by the Place Vendôme (1690). Most of these works still set their stamp on the character of Paris and can be seen by a modern-day tourist.

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