FIG. 210.
—GRAND STAIRCASE OF THE OPERA, PARIS.
THE REPUBLIC. Since the disasters of 1870 a number of important structures have been erected, and French architecture has shown a remarkable vitality and flexibility under new conditions. Its productions have in general been marked by a refined taste and a conspicuous absence of eccentricity and excess; but it has for the most part trodden in well-worn paths. The most notable recent monuments are, in church architecture, the Sacré-Cœur, at Montmartre, by Abadie, a votive church inspired from the Franco-Byzantine style of Aquitania; in civil architecture the new Hôtel de Ville, at Paris, by Ballu and Déperthes, recalling the original structure destroyed by the Commune, but in reality an original creation of great merit; in scholastic architecture the new École de Médecine, and the new Sorbonne, by Nénot, and in other branches of the art the metal-and-glass exhibition buildings of 1878, 1889, and 1900. In the last of these the striving for originality and the effort to discard traditional forms reached the extreme, although accompanied by much very clever detail and a masterly use of color-decoration.
To these should be added many noteworthy theatres, town-halls, court-houses, and préfectures in provincial cities, and commemorative columns and monuments almost without number. In street architecture there is now much more variety and originality than formerly, especially in private houses, and the reaction against the orders and against traditional methods of design has of late been growing stronger. The chief excellence of modern French architecture lies in its rational planning, monumental spirit, and refinement of detail (Fig. 212).
FIG. 211.—FOUNTAIN OF LONGCHAMPS, MARSEILLES.
GERMANY AND AUSTRIA. German architecture has been more affected during the past fifty years by the archæological spirit than has the French. A pronounced mediæval revival partly accompanied, partly followed the Greek revival in Germany, and produced a number of churches and a few secular buildings in the basilican, Romanesque, and Gothic styles.
These are less interesting than those in the Greek style, because mediæval forms are even more foreign to modern needs than the classic, being compatible only with systems of design and construction which are no longer practicable. At Munich the Auekirche, by Ohlmuller, in an attenuated Gothic style; the Byzantine Ludwigskirche, and Ziebland’s Basilica following Early Christian models; the Basilica by Hübsch
, at Bulach, and the Votive Church at Vienna (1856) by H. Von Ferstel (1828–1883) are notable neo-mediæval monuments. The last-named church may be classed with Ste. Clothilde at Paris (see [p. 371]), and St. Patrick’s Cathedral at New York, all three being of approximately the same size and general style, recalling St. Ouen at Rouen. They are correct and elaborate, but more or less cold and artificial.