Jean Baptiste Antoine Lassus

Born in Paris in 1807, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus became a French architect and architectural historian with a deep interest in medieval art and building traditions. He built a reputation as a careful observer of Gothic architecture at a time when France was looking again at its medieval past.

He is especially remembered for his church designs and restoration work. Lassus worked on the restoration of Sainte-Chapelle and, with Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, was appointed to the major restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris. His career helped establish medieval architecture as a serious subject of study as well as a living source for new design.

Lassus died in Vichy in 1857. Though his life was relatively short, he is remembered as one of the early specialists who helped bring Gothic architecture back to the center of French artistic and architectural life.