Alphonse Durand, 1813 - 1882, a life in the service of monuments.

A street in Mantes-la-Jolie, or simply a common eponym: the name Alphonse Durand does not evoke a memory commensurate with his work. Worse still, it is often tainted by the misconception that he dared to destroy the north tower of the Notre-Dame collegiate church in Mantes-la-Jolie. Born in Mantes, this architect, trained at the École des Beaux-Arts, was part of the first list of architects for the diocesan buildings department drawn up by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in 1848. His work on the churches of Vétheuil and Les Andelys, the collegiate churches of Vernon and Gisors, and the cathedrals of Langres, Coutances, and Autun, reveals the nascent adventure of restoring historic monuments. His buildings also reflect the official architectural taste of the Second Empire in the civil and religious buildings he built in Poitiers, Quimper, and Limay. Bringing together the finest plans and surveys drawn by Durand, this catalog reveals his most ambitious work: the collegiate church of Mantes.
On the 140th anniversary of his death and thanks to the support of the Media Library of Architecture and Heritage, this catalogue, published on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition recognised as being of national interest by the Ministry of Culture and Communication, re-establishes for the first time the life and work of this eminent architect.