Auguste Payen (1801–1877) was a Belgian architect whose work included civic buildings in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

and railway stations for the

Belgian State Railways The Belgian State Railways ( ; ) was the original state-owned railway of Belgium. Established by an organic law of 1 May 1834, it began construction of its first line, between Brussels and Mechelen on 1 June 1834. This line, which was opened on 5 ...

Life

Payen was born in Brussels on 7 June 1801. His father, of the same name, was also an architect, originally from

Tournai Tournai ( , ; ; ; , sometimes Anglicisation (linguistics), anglicised in older sources as "Tournay") is a city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Hainaut Province, Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies by ...

.E.J. Soil, "Payen (Auguste)", ''

Biographie Nationale de Belgique The ''Biographie nationale de Belgique'' (; ) is a biographical dictionary of Belgium. It was published by the Royal Academy of Belgium in 44 volumes between 1866 and 1986. A continuation series, entitled the ''Nouvelle Biographie Nationale'' (, ...

'', vol. 16(Brussels, 1901), 774-776. Payen studied under

Bruno Renard Bruno may refer to: People and fictional characters * Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname * Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880) * Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne ...

at the drawing academy in Tournai. There he was imbued with the idea that only the Greeks and Romans provided models for architecture. He remained loyal to this Belgian Neo-Classicism throughout his career, even as

Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

came into fashion. Between 1830 and 1841 he worked as city architect for Brussels, resigning to take up a position with the Belgian State Railways. His work on rail infrastructure included the original

Brussels-South railway station Brussels-South railway station, also known as Brussels-Midi railway station (; ), is a major railway station in Brussels, Belgium. Geographically, it is located in Saint-Gilles, Belgium, Saint-Gilles/Sint-Gillis on the border with the adjacent ...

. He died in

Saint-Josse-ten-Noode Saint-Josse-ten-Noode ( French, ) or Sint-Joost-ten-Node ( Dutch, ), often simply called Saint-Josse in French or Sint-Joost in Dutch, is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the north-eastern part o ...

on 16 April 1877.

Honours

* Knight of the

Order of Leopold Order of Leopold may refer to: * Order of Leopold (Austria), founded in 1808 by emperor Francis I of Austria and discontinued in 1918 * Order of Leopold (Belgium), founded in 1832 by king Leopold I of Belgium * Order of Leopold II, founded in Congo ...

, 1848. * Officer of the Order of Leopold, 1871.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Payen, Auguste 1801 births 1877 deaths 19th-century Belgian architects