Les voyageurs germaniques et l’architecture française au xviie siècle

Abstract

Although many Germans visited France between the 15th and 17th centuries, some particularly appreciated its ancient, medieval and modern buildings, as revealed by their travel journals and accounts. Some wrote Itinéraires or Délices, devoted chiefly to France, which single out the most remarkable buildings, such as geographer Matthias Quadt in 1603 (Deliciæ Galliæ sive Itinerarium per universam Galliam) and the lawyer Paul Hentzner in 1618 (Itinerarium Germaniæ, Galliæ, Angliæ, Italiæ). Ulysses belgico-gallicus (1631) by Abraham Gölnitz, who travelled around France between 1624 and 1626, was a success in Europe and was rapidly imitated. In the second half of the 17th century, foreigners from northern Europe readily used the Topographia Galliæ published in Frankfurt in 1655 by Caspar Merian. What influence did they have on how French architecture was received?

Keywords

• architecture
• journey
• religious architecture
• Gallo-Roman antiquities
• royal residences
• châteaux