French Architecture: The nineteenth century

On the last decades of the eighteenth century the neoclassicism was perpetuated by monumental forms serving the political ambitions of the Second Empire (1852-70) of Napoleon III and in the mid-nineteenth century the Gothic revival was ardently championed in France by the architect and theorist Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, restorer of many of the country's most famous monuments, including Notre Dame in Paris (1842–68).

During this period, the city of Paris was extensively remodeled under Napoleon III, the french preference for classicism was institutionalized in the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, buildings such as Jean Louis Charles Garnier's spectacular Paris Opera or Palais Garnier (1861-75), located at the northern end of the Avenue de l'Opéra in the IXe arrondissement of Paris, played an important role in Baron Haussmann's modernization of the city during the Second Empire, Haussmann was commissioned to drive new boulevards through the heart of the city.

In this period was constructed the most famous french building, the Eiffel tower by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (1889), properties of new industrial materials and construction techniques were investigated by such pioneers as Henri Labrouste. The Bibliothèque Ste Geneviève (1843–50) designed by Henri Labrouste who used a cast-iron construction.

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