Auguste Payen (1801–1877) was a Belgian architect whose work included civic buildings in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

and railway stations for the

Belgian State Railways The Belgian State Railways ( nl, Belgische Staatsspoorwegen; french: Chemins de fer de l'État Belge) was the original state-owned railway of Belgium. Established by an organic law of 1 May 1834, it began construction of its first line, between Bru ...

Life

Payen was born in Brussels on 7 June 1801. His father, of the same name, was also an architect, originally from

Tournai Tournai or Tournay ( ; ; nl, Doornik ; pcd, Tornai; wa, Tornè ; la, Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt. Tournai is part of Euromet ...

.E.J. Soil, "Payen (Auguste)", ''

Biographie Nationale de Belgique The ''Biographie nationale de Belgique'' ( French; "National Biography of Belgium") is a biographical dictionary of Belgium. It was published by the Royal Academy of Belgium in 44 volumes between 1866 and 1986. A continuation series, entitled the ' ...

'', vol. 16(Brussels, 1901), 774-776. Payen studied under Bruno Renard at the drawing academy in Tournai. There he was imbued with the idea that only the Greeks and Romans provided models for architecture. He remained loyal to this Belgian Neo-Classicism throughout his career, even as

Gothic Revival architecture Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

came into fashion. Between 1830 and 1841 he worked as city architect for Brussels, resigning to take up a position with the Belgian State Railways. His work on rail infrastructure included the original

Brussels-South railway station Brussels-South railway station (french: Gare de Bruxelles-Midi, nl, Station Brussel-Zuid, IATA code: ZYR), officially Brussels-South (french: Bruxelles-Midi, link=no, nl, Brussel-Zuid, link=no), is a major railway station in Brussels, Belgium ...

. He died in

Saint-Josse-ten-Noode Saint-Josse-ten-Noode () or Sint-Joost-ten-Node (), often simply called Saint-Josse or Sint-Joost, is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the north-eastern part of the region, it is bordered by the Ci ...

on 16 April 1877.

Honours

* Knight of the Order of Leopold, 1848. * Officer of the Order of Leopold, 1871.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Payen, Auguste 1801 births 1877 deaths 19th-century Belgian architects