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.

Succeeding Bélanger as government architect in 1818, Hittorff designed many important public and private buildings in Paris and also in the south of France.

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.