Jacques Ignace Hittorff

Jacques Ignace Hittorff or, in German, Jakob Ignaz Hittorff (German: [ˈjaːkop ˈɪɡnaːts ˈhɪtɔʁf], French: [ʒak iɲas itɔʁf]) (Cologne, 20 August 1792 – 25 March 1867) was a German-born French architect who combined advanced structural use of new materials, notably cast iron, with conservative Beaux-Arts classicism in a career that spanned the decades from the Restoration to the Second Empire.

After serving an apprenticeship to a mason in his native city, he went in 1810 to Paris, and studied for some years at the Académie des Beaux-Arts[1] while working concurrently as a draughtsman for Charles Percier.

From 1819 to 1830, in collaboration with Jean-François-Joseph Lecointe he directed the royal fêtes and ceremonials,[1] for which elaborate temporary structures were required, a post with a long history,[2] which the two architects inherited from Bélanger.

At each angle of the square's extended octagon a statue was erected representing a French city: Bordeaux, Brest, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Rouen and Strasbourg.

[1] A project that failed to please Napoleon III was Hittorff's proposal for the Palais de l'Industrie to be constructed in 1853 to house the Exposition Universelle of 1855.