Louis-Étienne Héricart De Thury

Louis-Étienne François Héricart-Ferrand, vicomte de Thury (

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, 3 June 1776 –

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, 15 January 1854) was a French politician and man of science. He was a

mining engineer Mining engineering is the extraction of minerals from the ground. It is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, metallurgy, geotechnical engineering and surveying. A mining engineer m ...

who produced more than 350 scholarly articles; was a member of numerous societies and professional associations. He was heir to an estate of great horticultural richness with the equivalent of a private

arboretum An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...

. He was a founding member of the

National Horticultural Society of France The National Horticultural Society of France (French: ''Société nationale dhorticulture de France'', or SNHF) is a horticultural society founded in 1827 by Louis-Étienne Héricart de Thury. Headquartered in Paris, it comprises specialized depa ...

. His family were of the '' noblesse de robe'', his father a master councillor at the ''

Cour des Comptes The ''Cour des Comptes'' (, "Court of Accounts") is France's supreme audit institution, under French law an administrative court. As such, it is independent from the legislative and executive branches of the French Government. However, the 1946 ...

''. The Héricart showed an aptitude for science and was enrolled in the ''

École des Mines École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

'' 13 April 1795. His first commissions sent him on several trips to the south of France. In 1809 he was assigned the position of general inspector of quarries, a position he held, under changes of government, until 1830. Following the work of Charles Axel Guillaumot, he undertook the work researching and consolidating former Paris' subterranean mines including the famed

Catacombs of Paris The Catacombs of Paris (, ) are underground ossuaries in Paris, France, which hold the remains of more than six million people. Built to consolidate Paris's ancient stone quarries, they extend south from the ("Gate of Hell") former city gate. ...

. In 1814 he was received a member of the Société royale et centrale d'agriculture, first of a long list of scientific societies in which he was a member or correspondent. He was named director of the ''Bâtiments civils'' of Paris in 1823, and in that capacity oversaw the construction of the

Paris Bourse Euronext Paris, formerly known as the Paris Bourse (), is a regulated securities trading venue in France. It is Europe's second largest stock exchange by market capitalization, behind the London Stock Exchange, as of December 2023. As of 2022, th ...

, the completion of the

Arc de Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile, often called simply the Arc de Triomphe, is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Plac ...

and the transformation of the Hôtel de Cluny into a museum. He was elected a member of the ''

Académie des sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

'' in 1824. He was listed among the four hundred founding members of the Société d'horticulture de Paris, 11 June 1827. He was returned as ''député'' on three elections, in 1815, 1820 and 1824, then was defeated in the election of 1827. He was a member of the court circle of

Charles X Charles X may refer to: * Charles X of France (1757–1836) * Charles X Gustav (1622–1660), King of Sweden * Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon (1523–1590), recognized as Charles X of France but renounced the royal title See also * * King Charle ...

and an adherent of the arch-conservative minister Villèle. He was a prime mover of the purchase of the

Palais Bourbon The Palais Bourbon () is the meeting place of the National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French Parliament. It is in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, on the Rive Gauche of the Seine across from the Place de la Concorde. The offi ...

, seat of the Assemblée Nationale, by the French government in 1827. In the last years of his life he was often asked to serve on juries judging expositions. He resigned the presidency of the Société d'horticulture in 1851. That same year he accompanied his son to Italy, where he died in Rome, 1854. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hericart De Thury, Louis-Etienne 1776 births 1854 deaths Members of the French Academy of Sciences Politicians from Paris Scientists from Paris French mining engineers Arc de Triomphe