Mathurin Crucy

Mathurin Crucy (2 February 1749, Nantes - 7 November 1826, Chantenay, near Nantes) was a French architect and urban planner, who conceived a major Neo-Classical architectural programme for Nantes which deeply marked the town.

The son of a lumber contractor, Crucy trained as an architect in Nantes in the studio of Jean-Baptiste Ceineray. With his help, he went to Paris and met the architect Étienne-Louis Boullée and the painter Joseph-Marie Vien. These contacts helped him to join the Académie royale d'architecture in 1771. He won the first Academy Award in 1774, later called the Prix de Rome, for his plan for a public spa-water bath. This allowed him to make a living in Italy for four years. At the Villa Medici, he met the painter Jacques-Louis David. He became deeply influenced by the villas of the architect Andrea Palladio.

He returned to Nantes in 1779 and succeeded Ceineray as overseer of the town architecture in 1780. He was responsible for the management of large urban developments underway at the time, including the transformation of the districts of Graslin and la Bourse. He originated the planning of Place Graslin and designed the Théâtre Graslin and Palais de la Bourse.

During the French Revolution he sought to protect important monuments from destruction by revolutionary extremists. He saved the tomb of Duke Francis II of Brittany and Marguerite de Foix during the destruction of the Carmelite church in the ducal parish in 1793. The tomb was later re-erected in Nantes cathedral.

He resigned in 1800 to devote himself to the family business, a naval shipyard, with his brother Louis. The business was growing because of the wars with England. His company, based in Basse-Indre, built frigates for the Napoleonic fleet, but it went bankrupt in 1808 and he completely abandoned this activity in 1810. He was appointed architect of the department of Loire-inférieure in 1809.

...
Wikipedia