Ernest Hébrard (1875 - 1933) was a French architect, archeologist, and urban planner best known for his plans for reconstructing Thessaloniki after a great fire in 1917 and for his contributions to designing sites in French Indochina. Hébrard studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, then at the Académie de France in Rome, where he undertook research on Diocletian's palace at Split (Croatia), which is still considered authoritative on the subject. Around this time, he and others associated with the Musée social developed an interest in urban planning, and Hébrard went on to become a founding member of the French Society of Urban Planners (Société française des urbanistes) in 1911. During the First World War, he was assigned as an archaeologist with the French Army of the East stationed at Thessaloniki. When that city suffered a terribly destructive fire in 1917, Hébrard was commissioned by the Greek Prime Minister (who favored a modern city plan) to redesign Thessaloniki. Hébrard and his colleagues completely reworked the city plan, focusing on a number of ancient ruins but otherwise replacing narrow and winding historic streets with wide, symmetrical boulevards. Afterward, he was made head of the Indochina Architecture and Town Planning Service based in Hanoi. He helped lay out the mountain resort town of Da Lat and colonial neighborhoods in other cities. Hébrard also developed a unique syncretic architectural style that was employed in several government buildings, schools, and churches, including the Vietnam National Museum of History (Viện Bảo tàng Lịch sử Việt Nam) and the Cửa Bắc Church in Hanoi. He returned to Paris in 1931 and died two years later, and was buried at Père-Lachaise.



Out of Stock Maps