Eustache de Saint-Far

Jean Far Eustache de Saint-Far (* 1746 ; † 1828 ) was a French architect and city ​​builder .

Career

He completed his engineering studies at the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris. Eustache de Saint-Far served for several years in the corps royal des ingénieurs before he was appointed architect for civil hospitals in 1782 at the suggestion of Jacques Necker .

Draft of a building ensemble around a planned salle de comedie as a peripheral development of Gutenbergplatz in Mayence

The city of Mainz as an important city in the reunified areas to the left of the Rhine should be made representative through urban development measures. Mainz was to take over military functions as a transit station to the east, and later serve as an imperial residence and become the "shop window of the Empire". Eustache de Saint-Far as an experienced master builder was employed as the departmental building director and senior engineer for civil projects. By a decree of Napoléon I of October 13, 1804, squares and streets were laid out, such as a parade street with the name Grand Rue Napoléon which led to the newly created Gutenbergplatz and the Große Bleiche .

Article I: sesera construit une nouvelle place dans la ville de Mayence, sur l'emplacement atimes ruines, dans le quartier de la prevote. Cette place aura de dix a douze mille meters de superficie.

(A new square will be built in the city of Mainz, on the site of the ruined / destroyed building, in the district of the Dompropstei . This square will have an area of ​​10 to 12 thousand meters.)

Article IV: La place Neuve portera le nom de Guttenberg ( sic! ), Inventeur de l'imprimerie.

(The new square will bear the name of Gutenberg, inventor of the art of printing.)

Eustache de Saint-Far designed the urban planning concept for the monumental staging of the cityscape, which was badly damaged by the siege of the coalition troops . Here he had to prevail against Bishop Joseph Ludwig Colmar , because not a few churches and even the Martinus Cathedral of the old diocese should fall victim to the new planning.

Saint-Far, French chief engineer of bridges and road construction, prepared an "alignment plan" for the city of Mainz on October 1, 1804, on the orders of Emperor Napoleon. This card is 10 feet tall and the same width. It was rolled up on poles and was in the Mainz town house. The real state of the city is shown in black, that which is to be omitted in the new alignment (adaptation) is painted in yellow, and what is to be added is painted in red. This plan remained only a project and although it was presented to the Minister of the Interior, Champagny , without confirmation.

The buildings were designed in the classicist style of the Empire . Only one of the buildings was realized in the northwest of Gutenbergplatz. The house (built in 1810) was characterized by arcades on the rusticated ground floor and had three and a half floors, comparable to the buildings on Rue de Rivoli in Paris.

In 1807, Saint-Far built a third wing of the castle , but it was only a one-story customs house. The functionality was determined by an open courtyard side and a closed city side. An arched zone extended over sandstone pillars with Doric capitals.

The Martinsburg was finally demolished in 1807 and a free port was built from its stones. Until the construction of the customs and inland port of Mainz , this was to remain the only free port.

In 1806 construction began on the Hospice Josephine , named after Joséphine de Beauharnais , Napoleon's wife, but it was never completed. The wings of the building on Neutorstrasse (No. 8/10) were established in place of the old Capuchin monastery, while the other monastery buildings continued to be used. This was to represent one of the few examples of revolutionary architecture in the area of ​​what would later become Germany. The university's medical faculty was to be transformed into an École spéciale de médicine , for which a new building was planned to replace the Welschnonnen Church . This building was not realized either. In addition, Mayence was connected to the French trunk road network, for example with the Kaiserstraße . The project was drawn up by Saint-Far's chief engineer for bridges and roads. In this context, the Office for Roads and Bridges worked out two different plans.

In 1803, the main cemetery in Mainz was built in order to no longer organize funerals exclusively from an ecclesiastical point of view, but to place them under the primacy of the political or civil community. In his position he worked closely with Jeanbon St. André , Prefect of the Département and Franz Konrad Macké , Mayence Mayence.

One of his employees was François-Auguste Cheussey , who was involved in the major construction work in the city and, among other things, built St. Achatius in Zahlbach , the only new church in Mainz during the Napoleonic era.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Antoine Picon: L'invention de l'ingénieur moderne , Presses des ponts et chaussées, 1992, p. 768, ISBN 2859781781 , "L'école des ponts et chaussées au siècle des Lumières", p. 146
2. ↑ From the Mainz history calendar, by Hans Baumann
3. ^ Karl Anton Schaab : History of the City of Mainz , four volumes, Mainz 1841-1851, Volume 1: (1841)
4. ↑ "Vue de l'Hospice géométrale Josephine élève à Mayence en l'de In 1806, par Ordre Mr. Jean-Bon St. André, Préfet du Mont-Tonnerre; D'après les Dessins et sous la Direction du Sr. St.-Far, Ingénieur en Chef du même Département. " in: Mainz City Archives, signature: BPSP / 1398 C

literature

• Fritz Arens : François Auguste Cheussey, an employee of Eustache St. Far ; Mainzer Zeitschrift 71/72 (1976/77), pp. 127-139
• Beate Hartmann-Just: Eustache St. Far: Life and career of an "Ingénieur en chef" under Napoleon ; Mainzer Zeitschrift, 79/80 (1984/85), pp. 169–186
• Petra Tücks: On the urban and architectural design of the city of Mainz during Napoleonic rule. The designs by Jean Fare Eustache St. Far . In: INSITU. Zeitschrift für Architekturgeschichte 1 (2/2009), pp. 7–26.

Web links

• Works by St. Far on the Joconde database pages