Pascal Coste
Encyclopedia
Xavier Pascal Coste was a French architect.
s in Marseille. Showing intellectual and artistic promise, Pascal began his studies in the studio of Penchaud
, architect of the département and the municipalité. In 1814, he was received into the École des Beaux-Arts
in Paris
. His time in Paris was a pivotal one in his life - there he met the geographer Edme François Jomard, who put him in touch with the viceroy of Egypt
, Mehmet Ali
, who took Coste on as his architect in 1817.
In 1825 Coste returned to France with an impressive series of drawings of the architecture of Cairo
, but he soon went to Egypt once again at Mehmet Ali's request, where Mehmet Ali made him chief engineer for Lower Egypt. Coste remained there for four years, during which time he accumulated many sketches, but he found the Egyptian climate difficult and returned to France in 1829. There he became a professor of architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, thanks to the links he had kept up with Penchaud. He remained in this post until 1861, when he was one of the founder members of the intellectual centre known as the Athénée.
In parallel with these activities he travelled around France and to Germany, Belgium and Tunisia and produced several authoritative works on architecture - his Architecture arabe (1827) earned him a place on the French king's embassy to the Shah of Iran. In Iran Coste and the painter Eugène Flandin were authorised to visit the ruins of Ecbatana
, Bishtun
, Taq-e Bostan
, Sarpol-e Zahab
, Pasargadae
and Persepolis
, where he made many sketches. On his return via Baghdad
, he saw the ruins of Seleucia
, Ctesiphon
and Babylon
. He continued via Nineveh
, to which the archaeologist Paul Émile Botta was also travelling to begin his excavations.
His middle eastern journey aroused the interest of Louis-Philippe I and gained Coste the post of chief architect of Marseille in 1844. In 1846, the president of the Chambre de Commerce, M. Luce, commissioned from Coste the Bourse
on Marseille's Canebière. Coste was also the originator of two other architectural projects in Marseille - the construction of the faculté aux allées de Meilhan, and a museum with château d'eau at Longchamp. He also began construction on the abattoir d'Arenc, only completed in 1851.
A tireless traveller, even aged over 80 he visited Spain, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Russia and Italy. He left 30 albums of drawings on his death, now held at the Bibliothèque de Marseille, though some of his essays were never published. Towards the end of his life he was made an officer of the Légion d'honneur
. He died aged 92 and was buried at the cimetière Saint-Pierre
in Marseille
.
Life
His father was one of the leading joinerJoiner
A joiner differs from a carpenter in that joiners cut and fit joints in wood that do not use nails. Joiners usually work in a workshop since the formation of various joints generally requires non-portable machinery. A carpenter normally works on site...
s in Marseille. Showing intellectual and artistic promise, Pascal began his studies in the studio of Penchaud
Michel-Robert Penchaud
Shaan Penchaud was a French architect.The son of Robert-Louis Penchaud, a provincial architect of Poitou and grandson of a mason who died in Paris, in 1756, his forced enrollment in the Armée de l'Ouest during the Revolution interrupted his studies...
, architect of the département and the municipalité. In 1814, he was received into the École des Beaux-Arts
École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts
The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts is the distinguished National School of Fine Arts in Paris, France.The École des Beaux-arts is made up of a vast complex of buildings located at 14 rue Bonaparte, between the quai Malaquais and the rue Bonaparte, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Près,...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. His time in Paris was a pivotal one in his life - there he met the geographer Edme François Jomard, who put him in touch with the viceroy of Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Mehmet Ali
Muhammad Ali of Egypt
Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha was a commander in the Ottoman army, who became Wāli, and self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan...
, who took Coste on as his architect in 1817.
In 1825 Coste returned to France with an impressive series of drawings of the architecture of Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, but he soon went to Egypt once again at Mehmet Ali's request, where Mehmet Ali made him chief engineer for Lower Egypt. Coste remained there for four years, during which time he accumulated many sketches, but he found the Egyptian climate difficult and returned to France in 1829. There he became a professor of architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, thanks to the links he had kept up with Penchaud. He remained in this post until 1861, when he was one of the founder members of the intellectual centre known as the Athénée.
In parallel with these activities he travelled around France and to Germany, Belgium and Tunisia and produced several authoritative works on architecture - his Architecture arabe (1827) earned him a place on the French king's embassy to the Shah of Iran. In Iran Coste and the painter Eugène Flandin were authorised to visit the ruins of Ecbatana
Ecbatana
Ecbatana is supposed to be the capital of Astyages , which was taken by the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great in the sixth year of Nabonidus...
, Bishtun
Behistun Inscription
The Behistun Inscription The Behistun Inscription The Behistun Inscription (also Bistun or Bisutun, Modern Persian: بیستون The Behistun Inscription (also Bistun or Bisutun, Modern Persian: بیستون...
, Taq-e Bostan
Taq-e Bostan
Taqwasân or Taq-e Bostan or Taq-i-Bustan is a series of large rock relief from the era of Sassanid Empire of Persia, the Iranian dynasty which ruled western Asia from 226 to 650 AD. This example of Sassanid art is located 5 km from the city center of Kermanshah in western Iran...
, Sarpol-e Zahab
Hulwan, Iran
Hulwan is the name of an ancient city in the Zagros mountain range in present-day western Iran close to Kermanshah and the Diyala River. It was conquered by the Muslim Arab Armies in 638, and by Hulagu in 1257....
, Pasargadae
Pasargadae
Pasargadae , the capital of Cyrus the Great and also his last resting place, was a city in ancient Persia, and is today an archaeological site and one of Iran's UNESCO World Heritage Sites.-History:...
and Persepolis
Persepolis
Perspolis was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire . Persepolis is situated northeast of the modern city of Shiraz in the Fars Province of modern Iran. In contemporary Persian, the site is known as Takht-e Jamshid...
, where he made many sketches. On his return via Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, he saw the ruins of Seleucia
Seleucia
Seleucia was the first capital of the Seleucid Empire, and one of the great cities of antiquity standing in Mesopotamia, on the Tigris River.Seleucia may refer to:...
, Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon, the imperial capital of the Parthian Arsacids and of the Persian Sassanids, was one of the great cities of ancient Mesopotamia.The ruins of the city are located on the east bank of the Tigris, across the river from the Hellenistic city of Seleucia...
and Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
. He continued via Nineveh
Nineveh
Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo Assyrian Empire. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq....
, to which the archaeologist Paul Émile Botta was also travelling to begin his excavations.
His middle eastern journey aroused the interest of Louis-Philippe I and gained Coste the post of chief architect of Marseille in 1844. In 1846, the president of the Chambre de Commerce, M. Luce, commissioned from Coste the Bourse
Palais de la Bourse (Marseille)
The Palais de la Bourse is a building on the Canebière in Marseille, France. It houses the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie Marseille-Provence....
on Marseille's Canebière. Coste was also the originator of two other architectural projects in Marseille - the construction of the faculté aux allées de Meilhan, and a museum with château d'eau at Longchamp. He also began construction on the abattoir d'Arenc, only completed in 1851.
A tireless traveller, even aged over 80 he visited Spain, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Russia and Italy. He left 30 albums of drawings on his death, now held at the Bibliothèque de Marseille, though some of his essays were never published. Towards the end of his life he was made an officer of the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
. He died aged 92 and was buried at the cimetière Saint-Pierre
Cimetière Saint-Pierre (Marseille)
The Cimetière Saint-Pierre is the largest cemetery in the town of Marseille, France.-External links:...
in Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
.
Buildings
- Église Saint-Lazare, Marseille, 1833
- Église Saint-Joseph, Marseille, 1833
- Église de Saint-Barnabé, Marseille, 1846
- Église de Mazargues, Marseille, 1851
- Palais de la Bourse (Marseille)Palais de la Bourse (Marseille)The Palais de la Bourse is a building on the Canebière in Marseille, France. It houses the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie Marseille-Provence....
- Pavillons of the cours Saint-LouisCours Saint-LouisThe cours Saint-Louis is a street in Marseille, named after Louis of Toulouse rather than Saint Louis. It is the location of small pavilions to designs by Pascal Coste from which flowers are sold....
in MarseilleMarseilleMarseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
Published
- Carte de la Basse-Égypte, dédiée à Mohammed Aly, par P. C., dressée d'après les itinéraires et les relevés, 1818-1827, s.l.n.d., v. 1830, in-4°.
- Notice sur un dolmen qui existe à Draguignan, with Audiffret, edited by Barlatier-Feissat and Demonchy, s. d., br., in-8°.
- Architecture arabe ou monuments du Kaire, mesurés et dessinés de 1818 à 1826, edited by Firmin Didot, 1837, gd. in-f°, 70 plates.
- Voyage en Perse, with Flandin, edited by Gide and Baudry, 1851, 2 vol. in-8°, and 6 in-f° of which 5 of plates and 1 of notes.
- Monuments modernes de la Perse mesurés, dessinés et décrits, edited by Morel, 1867, gd. in-f°, 71 pl. notes and col.
- La Cathédrale de Saint-Pétersbourg. La future cathédrale de Marseille, edited by Olive, 1874, br., in-8°.
- Palais de la Bourse de Marseille, as above
- Mémoire d'un artiste, as above
- Notes et souvenirs de voyage (1817-1877), edited by Cayer, 1878, 2 vol. in-8°, portr.
Unpublished
- Itinéraire de l'Ambassade française en Perse, sous M. le comte de Sercey, et des excursions scientifiques des deux artistes attachés à cette mission, (2 volumes of text with images and 9 atlases of plates)
- Monuments d'Europe... dessins... réunis... de 1832 à 1872..., 11 vol. avec 1187 pièces, relatives à la Grande-Bretagne, les États scandinaves, les empires russe, allemand, austro-hongrois, la Suisse, la Berlgique, la Hollande, l'Espagne et l'Italie.
- Monuments de France... 1828-1876..., 1 volume with 1491 plates.
- Monuments de l'Afrique septentrionale (rel. à l'Égypte, les États barbaresques et l'Espagne), 8 volumes with 1253 plates.