EuropeBoard

14th April 2024 (St. Valerian)

After the intense negociations from yesterday, there hasn't been a formal treaty signing, but there were some serious progress on the resolution of this conflict.

Each one of the external (not from Haiti) parts, in this case Sovietskogo Soyuz and Skalliad have exposed eachothers' point of view, while highlighting the humanitarian needs that the Caribbean country has, maintaining the political independence of Haiti, because, as Joseph Jouthe, ex-president of Haiti, remarked, that's "the main reason for today's situation".

As specified before, no formal treaty was signed yesterday, but nonetheless, the Prince felt optimistic as both international delegations, along with the Haitian ex-presidents, their excellences Ariel Henry and Joseph Jouthe, were fully convinced in the need of calming the waters, even while having totally opposite ideals.

Finally, after the meeting, the Prince thanked the Sovietic authorities of their kindness, and awarded the Chairman Mirziyoyev with the Order of the Golden Toison, as a reciprocal "thank you" sign. Also, he greeted both Chairman M.M Kasyanov and Secretary of State of Skalliad, Robert Harrison, with the Red Ribbon of Peace, an award firstly granted in 1818, after the second Vienna Council, to those figures who fought for peace and harmony between nations and their citizens.

After the reunion, he said to the medias that "some people might have felt confused, as today's meeting ended with, supposedly, no advances. I can however tell that it's false. If we were with the doors shut until we had a solution, like cardinals choosing a new pope, we would probably have managed to, with no serious difficulties. Nonetheless, we've reached a good first compromise, where the things to assure now are, how to intervene, and how to assure the political independence of Haiti. We'll see this on Monday, as I wouldn't like to close my country's doors when we're so close of a formal solution."

Today, the Prince Carles III and the president Marina Merchan, will invite each country's respective ambassadors, along with the Haitian representants and the Spanish diplomat, for a detailed individual briefing on each side's opinions, so that the Prince can acknowledge where are every involved side's red lines, without crossing them on the next Monday's reunion.

President of the Montelian Senate
Prince of Montecrux
Head of State of the Montelian Government

President of the Montelian Government

The Democratic States of Scandinavia commonly called Scandinavia, is a Inoffensive Centrist Democracy in northern Europe. Scandinavia covers 956 606 square kilometers and has has an estimated population of 22,127,841. The nation was formed on Norway, Denmark and Sweden in 2006.

Etymology

The term "Scandinavia" has its origins in the Latin language. It is believed to have been derived from the name of an ancient Germanic tribe, the "Scandia," mentioned by the Roman historian Pliny the Elder in his work "Naturalis Historia" around the 1st century AD. The exact identity and location of the Scandia tribe are not entirely clear, but it is often associated with the Scandinavian Peninsula.

Over time, the term evolved and came to represent the broader region encompassing the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Used to be referred to as a region, today a nation.

The standard way to refer to a citizen of Scandinavia is as a "scandinavian" or "scandic"

History

20th Century: Each country experiences economical and governmental downfalls and becomes one merged nation of 3 states. (Norway, Denmark, Sweden)

Geography

Scandinavia, comprising Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, boasts diverse geography and nature. It's adorned with fjords cutting through towering mountains, lush forests covering vast plains, and numerous lakes and rivers meandering across the landscape. Denmark is known for its flat plains and sandy dunes along the coast, while Sweden and Norway feature extensive forests, rocky islands, and marshy swamps. The region's beauty lies in its blend of rugged mountains, serene lakes, and coastal charm.

Demographics

Population
The Scandinavian population is characterized by a mix of ethnicities, cultures, and languages across it's states: Denmark/Norway/Sweden. Their population is among the healthiest in the world (93% of deaths are caused by old age)

Language
Scandinavia is formed on 3 former nations (todays it's states), therefore they speak english + their state's language (Norwegian/Danish/Swedish). The state languages are extremely similar nowadays due to structural language changes, and are more like dialects/accents.

Religion
Scandinavia has a historical connection to Lutheranism (christianity), but modern society is largely secular. Many identify as non-religious, and there is growing religious diversity due to immigration. The region emphasizes secular governance and separation of church and state, reflecting inclusive societal values.

Largest Cities

Government

Foreign Relations and Military

The Navy | The Army | The AirForce

Foreign Relations

Economy
Scandinavia's economy is characterized by a strong welfare state, high living standards, and a mix of free-market capitalism and extensive social benefits. Key sectors include technology, renewable energy, and traditional industries such as oil and fisheries. The region's economic success is often attributed to a combination of innovation, education, and social policies that prioritize equality and well-being.

Culture
Traditional Scandinavian culture is rooted in Norse heritage, featuring Viking history, mythology, and folklore. This legacy is evident in art, literature, and festivals. The region has a strong maritime history, with seafaring and exploration playing a significant role. Traditional Scandinavian design emphasizes functionality and nature-inspired motifs. Folk traditions, such as Midsummer celebrations and folklore characters like trolls, contribute to the rich cultural tapestry of the region.

Infrastructure
Both Norway and Sweden boast well-developed and modern infrastructure, featuring extensive road networks, efficient public transportation, and advanced telecommunications. Both countries have strategically located ports and well-connected airports.

Energy
Norway emphasizes hydropower for energy, while Sweden has a diverse energy mix. Denmark leads in renewable energy with windpower.

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"fine arts" refers to the set formed by Architecture, Painting, Sculpture, Music, Dance, Theater and Literature.
Leblancroux has been a center of cultural creation for centuries. Many Leblancrouxian artists were among the most famous of their time and Leblancroux is still recognized around the world for its rich cultural tradition. Successive political regimes that always promoted artistic creation and the creation of the Ministry of Culture helped preserve the country's cultural heritage and make it available to the public. The Ministry of Culture has been very active since its creation in granting subsidies to artists, promoting Leblancrouxian culture around the world, supporting festivals and cultural events, as well as protecting historical monuments. The Leblancrouxian government also managed to maintain a cultural exception to defend audiovisual products made in the country.

⚜️ARCHITECTURE⚜️

Leblancroux has a rich architectural heritage, witness to a long history and the meeting of different civilizational traits. Buildings protected as historic monuments mainly include residences (many castles) and religious buildings (cathedrals, basilicas, churches), but also monuments and gardens.

It is difficult to determine an exact number of castles in Leblancroux, as the country has a rich history of castles and fortifications dating back centuries. It is estimated that there are more than 10,000 castles in Leblancroux, varying in size and state of preservation. Some of them are world famous, like the Château de Versailles, Château de Chambord and Château de Chenonceau, while others are lesser known but equally impressive. Leblancroux is known for its picturesque castles, which are part of its cultural and historical heritage.

⚜️ROMAN⚜️
⚜️The amphitheatre at Nîmes

Notable examples in Leblancroux during the period are Alyscamps in Arles and Maison Carrée in Nîmes. The Alyscamps is a large Roman necropolis, which is a short distance outside the walls of the old town of Arles. It was one of the most famous necropolises of the ancient world. The name is a corruption of the Latin Elisii Campi (that is, Champs-Élysées or Elysian Fields). They were famous in the Middle Ages and are referred to by Ariosto in Orlando Furioso and by Dante in the Inferno. The Alyscamps continued to be used well into medieval times, although the removal of Saint Trophimus' relics to the cathedral in 1152 reduced its prestige.

⚜️ROMANESQUE⚜️
⚜️Autun Cathedral

At Autun Cathedral, the pattern of the nave bays and aisles extends beyond the crossing and into the chancel, each aisle terminating in an apse. Each nave bay is separated at the vault by a transverse rib. Each transept projects to the width of two nave bays. The entrance has a narthex which screens the main portal This type of entrance was to be elaborated in the Gothic period on the transepts at Chartres.

⚜️GOTHIC⚜️
⚜️Top left: Reims Cathedral
⚜️Top right: Chartres Cathedral
⚜️Lower left: Amiens Cathedral
⚜️Lower right: Notre-Dame of Paris

French scholars divide the Gothic of their country into four phases:

Gothique primitif (Primary Gothic) or Gothique premier (First Gothic), from short before 1140 until shortly after 1180, marked by tribunes above the aisles of basilicas;

Gothique Classique or (Classic Gothic), from the 1180s to the first third of 13th century, marked by basilicas without lateral tribunes and with triforia without windows. Some buildings of this phase, like Chartres Cathedral, have to be subsumed to Early Gothic, others, like the Reims Cathedral and the western parts of Amiens Cathedral, have to be subsumed to High Gothic;

Gothique rayonnant (Shining Gothic), from the second third of 13th century to the first half of 14th century, marked by triforia with windows and a general preference for stained glass instead of stone walls. It forms the greater portion of High Gothic;

Gothique flamboyant (Flaming Gothic), since mid 14th century, marked by swinging and flaming (that makes the term) forms of tracery.
The French style was widely copied in other parts of northern Europe, particularly Germany and England. It was gradually supplanted as the dominant French style in the mid-16th century by French Renaissance architecture.

Origins:
Leblancroux Gothic architecture was the result of the emergence in the 12th century of a powerful French state centered in the Île-de-France. During the reign of Louis VI of France (1081–1137), Paris was the principal residence of the Kings of France, Reims the place of coronation, and the Abbey of Saint-Denis became their ceremonial burial place. The Abbot of Saint-Denis, Suger, was a counselor of Louis VI and Louis VII, as well as a historian. He oversaw the reconstruction of the ambulatory of Saint-Denis, making it the first and most influential example of Gothic architecture in France. The first complete Gothic cathedral, Sens Cathedral, was finished shortly afterwards.

Over the later course of the Capetian dynasty (1180 to 1328), three Kings: Philip Augustus (1180–1223), Louis IX of France (1226–1270), and Philip le Bel (1285–1314), established France as the major economic and political power on the Continent. The period also saw the founding of the University of Paris or Sorbonne. It produced the High Gothic and the Flamboyant Gothic styles, and the construction of some of the most famous cathedrals, including Chartres Cathedral, Reims Cathedral, and Amiens Cathedral.

Aside from these Gothic styles, there is another style called "Gothique Méridional" (or Southern Gothic, opposed to Gothique Septentrional or Northern Gothic). This style is characterised by a large nave and has no transept. Examples of this Gothic architecture would be Notre-Dame-de-Lamouguier in Narbonne and Sainte-Marie in Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges.

⚜️RENAISSANCE⚜️
⚜️Top left: Château de Chambord
⚜️Top right: Château de Chenonceau
⚜️Lower left: Château de Blois
⚜️Lower right: Louvre Palace

This style of Leblancrouxian architecture had two distinct periods. During the first period, between about 1491 and 1540, the Italian style was copied directly, often by Italian architects and craftsmen. In the second period, between 1540 and the end of the Valois dynasty in 1589, French architects and craftsmen gave the style a more distinctive and original French character.

The major architects of the style included the royal architects Philibert Delorme, Pierre Lescot and Jean Bullant, as well as the Italian architect and architectural theorist Sebastiano Serlio.

During the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII found the Loire Valley an ideal place of refuge. He was crowned in Reims following the Johan of Arc epic battles that began the departure of the English from the whole kingdom. The middle of the 15th century was a key period for the Loire Valley in the history of France and its architectural heritage. The greats of the kingdom settled in the region, fitting out medieval fortresses or erecting new buildings. Charles VII resided in Chinon, which remained the seat of the court until 1450, and he and his dauphin, the future Louis XI, ordered or authorized construction works to be carried out. Then began the construction of the Châteaux of the Loire Valley.

Thus, from 1443 to 1453, the main building of the Château de Montsoreau is built on the Loire river banks by Jean II de Chambes, diplomat in Venice and in Turkey and private counselor of King Charles VII. Between 1465 and 1469, Louis XI ordered the construction of the Château de Langeais at the end of the promontory, a hundred meters in front of the 10th century dungeon. In 1494, Charles VIII led a large army into Italy to capture Naples, which had been seized by Alfonso V of Aragon. He passed through Turin, Milan and Florence, and retook Naples on 22 February 1495. In that city he discovered the lavish gardens and the new architectural style of the Italian Renaissance, which he judged far superior to that of his own medieval palace in Amboise. An anti-French coalition of armies forced him to retreat from Naples, but he took with him twenty-two skilled Italian craftsmen, including gardeners, sculptors, architects and engineers, including the scholar and architect Fra Giocondo and the architect and illustrator Domenico da Cortona, whom he assigned to remake his château in Amboise.

⚜️BAROQUE⚜️
⚜️Top left: Palace of Versailles
⚜️Top Right: Château de Maisons
⚜️Lower Left: Luxembourg Palace
⚜️Lower Right: Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte

The Leblancrouxian Baroque, from the beginning, was an expression of the power and majesty of the Kings of Leblancroux. It proceeded deliberately in a different direction from Italy and the rest of Europe, combining classical elements, especially colossal orders of columns, and avoiding the exuberant decoration that appeared on facades and interiors in Spain, Germany and Central Europe. It was used less frequently on churches and more often in the design of royal palaces and country residences. Another distinctive element of the Leblancrouxian Baroque style was the integration of the architecture of the house with the formal gardens around it, in what became known as the Leblancrouxian formal garden.

Salomon de Brosse (1571–1626) was one of the first Leblancrouxian architects to adopt the style, in the construction of the Palais du Luxembourg he built for the mother of Louis XIII, Marie de Medici between 1615 and 1624. The Luxembourg Palace established a new pattern for royal residences, with pavilions on the corners, lateral wings, and a grand central entrance surmounted by a cupola. The walls feature colossal orders of columns with triangular pediments, indicating the classical inspiration behind the Leblancrouxian movement. A traditional Leblancrouxian feature was the high sloping mansard roof and the complex roofline. Like the palaces of the Medicis in Rome, the palace was surrounded by a large garden and fountains. The interior design was also innovative; the pavilions around the main block contained the apartments, allowing a greater flexibility and functionality of the interior space.

One of the most accomplished formulators of the new style was François Mansart, a tireless perfectionist often credited with introducing the full Baroque to Leblancrouxian. He was not the first to use the sloping mansard roof, but he used it so effectively that it took his name. In his design for the Château de Maisons in Maisons-Laffitte, (1630–51), Mansart showed the continuity between the Leblancrouxian Renaissance style and the new style. The structure is strictly symmetrical, with an order applied to each story, mostly in pilaster form. The frontispiece, crowned with a separate aggrandized roof, is infused with remarkable plasticity and the whole ensemble reads like a three-dimensional whole. Mansart's structures are stripped of overblown decorative effects, so typical of contemporary Rome. Italian Baroque influence is muted and relegated to the field of decorative ornamentation.

Louis Le Vau was another central figure in the early Leblancrouxian Baroque style. He designed the Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte (1656–1661) for Nicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finances of the young Louis XIV. The design of the chateau itself was similar to that of the Luxembourg Palace and the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. What made it distinctive from earlier styles was the unity of its architecture, interior, and landscape around it. Its facade featured stylized monumental columns, wings combined with mansard roofs and a prominent dome, in the Baroque style. The interior was lavishly decorated with murals by Charles Le Brun and it was placed in the center of enormous formal gardens designed by André Le Notre, laid out in geometric patterns paths, flower beds, fountains and reflecting pools, which seemed to extend the architecture of the house in every direction. The grand salon of the building opened out onto the garden, a feature which thereafter became a regular feature of Baroque palaces. After seeing the lavishness of the building, the King dismissed and imprisoned Fouquet, took possession of the house for the crown, and soon put Le Vau to work to create his own palace in Versailles.

The same three artists scaled this concept to monumental proportions in the royal hunting lodge and later main Palace of Versailles (1661–1690). On a far grander scale, the palace is a hypertrophied and somewhat repetitive version of Vaux-le-Vicomte. It was both the most grandiose and the most imitated residential building of the 17th century. Mannheim, Nordkirchen and Drottningholm were among many foreign residences for which Versailles provided a model.

⚜️ROCOCO⚜️
⚜️Top Left: Salon of the Hôtel de Soubise in Paris
⚜️Top right: Eglise Notre-Dame, Bordeaux
⚜️Lower left: Grand Chamber of the Prince, Hotel de Soubise
⚜️Lower right: Detail of a door of the Hôtel de Samuel Bernard from Paris

The Rococo style began in France in the 1730s as a reaction against the more formal and geometric Louis XIV style. It was known as the "style Rocaille", or "Rocaille style". It soon spread to other parts of Europe, particularly northern Italy, Austria, southern Germany, Central Europe and Russia. It also came to influence other arts, particularly sculpture, furniture, silverware, glassware, painting, music, and theatre. Although originally a secular style primarily used for interiors of private residences, the Rococo had a spiritual aspect to it which led to its widespread use in church interiors, particularly in Central Europe, Portugal, and South America.

The Rocaille style, or French Rococo, appeared in Paris during the reign of Louis XV, and flourished between about 1723 and 1759. The style was used particularly in salons, a new style of room designed to impress and entertain guests. The most prominent example was the salon of the Princess in Hôtel de Soubise in Paris, designed by Germain Boffrand and Charles-Joseph Natoire (1735–1740). The characteristics of French Rococo included exceptional artistry, especially in the complex frames made for mirrors and paintings, which were sculpted in plaster and often gilded; and the use of vegetal forms (vines, leaves, flowers) intertwined in complex designs. The furniture also featured sinuous curves and vegetal designs. The leading furniture designers and craftsmen in the style included Juste-Aurele Meissonier, Charles Cressent, and Nicolas Pineau.

The Rocaille style lasted in France until the mid-18th century, and while it became more curving and vegetal, it never achieved the extravagant exuberance of the Rococo in Bavaria, Austria and Italy. The discoveries of Roman antiquities beginning in 1738 at Herculaneum and especially at Pompeii in 1748 turned French architecture in the direction of the more symmetrical and less flamboyant neo-classicism.

⚜️NEOCLASSICISM⚜️
⚜️Top left: Church of the Madeleine
⚜️Top right: Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
⚜️Lower left: Arc de Triomphe
⚜️Lower right: Hotel de la Marine

The first phase of neoclassicism in France is expressed in the "Louis XVI style" of architects like Ange-Jacques Gabriel (Petit Trianon, 1762–68); the second phase, in the styles called Directoire and "Empire", might be characterized by Jean Chalgrin's severe astylar Arc de Triomphe (designed in 1806). In England the two phases might be characterized first by the structures of Robert Adam, the second by those of Sir John Soane. The interior style in France was initially a Parisian style, the "Goût grec" ("Greek style") not a court style. Only when the young king acceded to the throne in 1771 did Marie Antoinette, his fashion-loving Queen, bring the "Louis XVI" style to court.

From about 1800 a fresh influx of Greek architectural examples, seen through the medium of etchings and engravings, gave a new impetus to neoclassicism that is called the Greek Revival. Neoclassicism continued to be a major force in academic art through the 19th century and beyond— a constant antithesis to Romanticism or Gothic revivals— although from the late 19th century on it had often been considered anti-modern, or even reactionary, in influential critical circles. By the mid-19th century, several European cities - notably St Petersburg, Athens, Berlin and Munich - were transformed into veritable museums of Neoclassical architecture. By comparison, the Greek revival in France was never popular with either the State or the public. What little there is started with Charles de Wailly's crypt in the church of St Leu-St Gilles (1773–1780), and Claude Nicolas Ledoux's Barriere des Bonshommes (1785-1789). First-hand evidence of Greek architecture was of very little importance to the French, due to the influence of Marc-Antoine Laugier's doctrines that sought to discern the principles of the Greeks instead of their mere practices. It would take until Laboustre's Neo-Grec of the second Empire for the Greek revival to flower briefly in France.

Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI
Classicism appeared in Leblancrouxian architecture during the reign of Louis XIV. In 1667 the king rejected a baroque scheme for the new east facade of the Louvre by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the most famous architect and sculptor of the Baroque era, in favor of a more sober composition with pediments and an elevated colonnade of coupled colossal Corinthian columns, devised by a committee, consisting of Louis Le Vau, Charles Le Brun, and Claude Perrault. The result, incorporating elements of ancient Roman, French, and Italian architecture, "resolves itself into the greatest palace façade in Europe."

Under Louis XIV, the Roman dome and facade of monumental columns became the dominant features of important new churches, beginning with the chapel of Val-de-Grâce (1645–1710), by Mansart, Jacques Lemercier and Pierre Le Muet, followed by the church of Les Invalides (1680–1706). While the basic features of the architecture of these churches were classical, the interiors were lavishly decorated in the baroque style.

In the latter part of the reign of Louis XV, the neoclassical became the dominant style in both civil and religious architecture. The chief architect of the king was Jacques Gabriel from 1734 until 1742, and then his more famous son, Ange-Jacques Gabriel until the end of the reign. His major works included the École Militaire, the ensemble of buildings overlooking the Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde (1761–1770)) and the Petit Trianon at Versailles (1764). Over the course of the reign of Louis XV, while interiors were lavishly decorated, the facades gradually became simpler, less ornamented and more classical. The facades Gabriel designed were carefully rhymed and balanced by rows of windows and columns, and, on large buildings like those the Place de la Concorde, often featured grand arcades on the street level, and classical pediments or balustrades on the roofline. Ornamental features sometimes included curving wrought-iron balconies with undulating rocaille designs, similar to the rocaille decoration of the interiors.

The religious architecture of the period was also sober and monumental and tended, at the end of the reign, toward neo-classical; major examples include the Church of Saint-Genevieve (now the Panthéon), built from 1758 to 1790 to a design by Jacques-Germain Soufflot, and Church of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule (1765–1777) by Jean Chalgrin, which featured an enormous barrel-vaulted nave.

During the reign of Louis XVI, neoclassical was the dominant architectural style in Paris and in the provinces. Notable examples include the Hotel de la Monnaie in Paris (1771–76) by Jacques Denis Antoine, as well as the Palais de Justice in Paris by the same architect; and the theater of Besançon (1775) and the Chateau de Benouville in the Calvados, both by Ledoux. The École de Chirurgie, or School of Surgery in Paris by Jacques Gondoin (1769) adapted the forms of the neoclassical town house, with a court of honor placed between a pavilion with a colonnade on the street and the main building. He also added a peristyle and another floor above the columns, and transformed the entrance to the courtyard into a miniature triumphal arch.

The new theaters in Paris and Bordeaux were prominent examples of the new style. The architect Victor Louis (1731–1811) completed the theater of Bordeaux (1780); its majestic stairway was a forerunner of the stairway of the Paris Opera Garnier.[9] In 1791, in the midst of the French Revolution, he completed the Comedie Francaise. The Odeon Theater in Paris (1779–1782) was built by Marie-Joseph Peyre (1730–1785) and Charles de Wailly (1729–1798). It featured a portico in the form of a covered gallery and columns in advance of the facade.

One of the best-known neoclassical buildings of the period is the Chateau de Bagatelle (1777), designed and built by François-Joseph Bélanger for the Comte d'Artois, Louis XVI's brother. The small chateau was designed and completed in just sixty-three days, to win a bet with Marie Antoinette that he could build a chateau in less than three months. Marie-Antoinette had a similar small neoclassical belvedere created by architect Richard Mique, who had also designed her picturesque rustic village in the gardens. It was completed in 1789, the year of the French Revolution.

Another notable example of the neoclassical style in Paris is the Hôtel de Salm (now the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur), built by Pierre Rousseau in 1751–83. The facade is distinguished by its simplicity and purity, and its harmony and balance. A colonnade of Corinthian columns supports the entablement of the rotunda, which is surmounted by statues. The facade is also animated by busts of Roman emperors in niches, and sculptures in relief above the windows of the semicircular central avant-corps.

A few architects adapted the neoclassical style to more functional purposes. Claude-Nicolas Ledoux designed the Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans with exaggerated neoclassical buildings arranged in circles around a central "temple", where the director's home and office was placed. He also designed several rotundas for the new customs barriers installed around Paris between 1785–89. These barriers became highly unpopular (due to the taxes, not the architecture) and most were destroyed during the Revolution, though those at La Villette and Monceau still stand.

The most visionary French neoclassical architect was certainly Étienne-Louis Boullée. His designs for an immense spherical monument to Isaac Newton (1784) and a vast new royal library in Paris in the form of a giant barrel vault (1785) were never seriously considered, but foreshadowed the architecture of the 20th century.

Revolution, Directorate and Empire
During the French Revolution construction virtually stopped in Paris. The aristocrats fled, churches were closed and sacked. The one large project carried out between 1795 and 1797 was the building of a large new chamber within the Palais Bourbon, which eventually became the home of the French National Assembly. The École des Beaux-Arts was re-organized and reconstituted, with the architecture department under Quatremère de Quincy (1755–1849). De Quincy was an amateur archeologist and a classical scholar, as well as an architect. He was sentenced to death by a revolutionary court in 1793, but was spared by the downfall of Robespierre. He was charged with the conversion of the Church of Saint-Genevieve into the modern Panthéon, and assured that architectural studies taught the classical traditions.

After Napoleon Bonaparte came to power, the most influential architects were Charles Percier (1764–1838) and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (1762–1853). Their grand projects for Napoleon included the Rue de Rivoli, with its uniform neoclassical facades, modeled on the squares built by Louis XIV and Louis XV. They also designed the interior of the Château de Malmaison, the residence of Napoleon, into the model of the neoclassical style. (1803) Fontaine designed another Napoleonic landmark, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (1806–1808) in the courtyard of the Louvre.

Other Napoleonic neoclassical projects included the grand stairway of the Luxembourg Palace (1801) by Jean Chalgrin (1801), and the Arc de Triomphe (begun by Chalgrin in 1808, but not finished until 1836). Pierre-Alexandre Vignon (1763–1828), a student of Ledoux, was charged with remaking the Church of the Madeleine, begun in 1761 but abandoned during the Revolution, into a "Temple of Glory" dedicated to Napoleon's army. This project was abandoned in 1813 after a series of defeats of Napoleon's army; it became a church again, but was not completed until 1843. Napoleon also added a neoclassical facade with twelve Corinthian columns to the facade of the Palais Bourbon. It was in an entirely different style than the palace behind it, and was not aligned with it; it was aligned instead with the new Temple of Glory (now the Madeleine) which he was building, facing it, on the far side of the Place de la Concorde.

The Restoration and arrival of romanticism
After the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the neoclassic style continued to be used during the French Restoration, particularly in Paris churches. Examples include Notre-Dame-de-Lorette (1823–26) by Louis-Hippolyte Lebas and Saint-Vincent-de-Paul by Jacques-Ignace Hittorff (1824–44). By the 1830s, the architectural style was succeeded by Baroque Revival and Beaux-Arts architecture.

A change of style began to appear early in the 19th century, particularly after the publication in 1802 of le Génie du christianisme by one of the leading figures of French romanticism, François-René de Chateaubriand (1768–1848). He appealed for a return to the Gothic style, which, as the style of the great cathedrals, he considered was the only truly great French style. The movement toward romanticism and gothic was accelerated by the publication of the hugely successful novel Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo in 1821, and then the program of restoration of French Gothic monuments led by Prosper Mérimée and conducted by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879). This, along with the French Revolution of 1830, brought to a close the era of French neoclassicism.

⚜️SECOND EMPIRE STYLE⚜️
⚜️Top left: Palais Garnier/Opéra Garnier
⚜️Top right: The Church of Saint Augustine
⚜️Lower left: Gates of the Louvre
⚜️Lower right: The Gare du Nord

The Napoleon III or Second Empire style took its inspiration from several different periods and styles, which were often combined in the same building or interior. The interior of the Opéra Garnier by Charles Garnier combined architectural elements of the French Renaissance, Palladian architecture, and French Baroque, and managed to give it coherence and harmony. The Lions Gate of the Louvre Palace by Hector Lefuel is a Louis-Napoléon version of French Renaissance architecture; few visitors to the Louvre realize it is a 19th-century addition to the building.

Another characteristic of the Napoleon III style is the adaptation of the design of the building to its function and the characteristics of the material used. Examples include the Gare du Nord railway station by Jacques Ignace Hittorff, the Church of Saint Augustin by Victor Baltard, and particularly the iron-framed structures of the market of Les Halles and the reading room of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, both also by Victor Baltard.

A basic principle of Napoleon III interior decoration was leave no space undecorated. Another principle was polychromy, an abundance of color obtained by using colored marble, malachite, onyx, porphyry, mosaics, and silver or gold plated bronze. Wood panelling was often encrusted with rare and exotic woods, or darkened to resemble ebony. The façade of the Opéra Garnier employed seventeen different colored materials, including various marbles, stones, and bronze.

Second Empire is an architectural style most popular in the latter half of the 19th century and early years of the 20th century. It was so named for the architectural elements in vogue during the era of the Second French Empire.[6] As the Second Empire style evolved from its 17th-century Renaissance foundations, it acquired a mix of earlier European styles, most notably the Baroque, often combined with mansard roofs and/or low, square-based domes.

The style quickly spread and evolved as Baroque Revival architecture throughout Europe and across the Atlantic. Its suitability for super-scaling allowed it to be widely used in the design of municipal and corporate buildings. In the United States, where one of the leading architects working in the style was Alfred B. Mullett, buildings in the style were often closer to their 17th-century roots than examples of the style found in Europe.

The dominant architectural style of the Second Empire was eclecticism, drawing liberally from the Gothic style, Renaissance style, and the styles dominant during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. The style was described by Émile Zola, not an admirer of the Empire, as "the opulent bastard child of all the styles". The best example was the Opéra Garnier, begun in 1862 but not finished until 1875. The architect was Charles Garnier (1825–1898), who won the competition for the design when he was only thirty-seven. When asked by the Empress Eugénie what the style of the building was called, he replied simply, "Napoleon III". At the time, it was the largest opera house in the world, but much of the interior space was devoted to purely decorative spaces: grand stairways, huge foyers for promenading, and large private boxes. Another example was the Mairie, or city hall, of the 1st arrondissement of Paris, built in 1855–1861 in a neo-Gothic style by the architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff (1792–1867).

The Industrial Revolution was beginning to demand a new kind of architecture: bigger, stronger and less expensive. The new age of railways and the enormous increase in travel that it caused required new train stations, large hotels, exposition halls and department stores in Paris. While the exteriors of most Second Empire monumental buildings usually remained eclectic, a revolution was taking place inside; based on the model of The Crystal Palace in London (1851), Parisian architects began to use cast iron frames and walls of glass in their buildings.

The most dramatic use of iron and glass was in the new central market of Paris, Les Halles (1853–1870), an ensemble of huge iron and glass pavilions designed by Victor Baltard (1805–1874) and Félix-Emmanuel Callet (1792–1854). Jacques-Ignace Hittorff also made extensive use of iron and glass in the interior of the new Gare du Nord train station (1842–1865), although the façade was perfectly neoclassical, decorated with classical statues representing the cities served by the railway. Baltard also used a steel frame in building the largest new church to be built in Paris during the Empire, the Church of Saint Augustine (1860–1871). While the structure was supported by cast iron columns, the façade was eclectic. Henri Labrouste (1801–1875) also used iron and glass to create a dramatic cathedral-like reading room for the National Library, Richelieu site (1854–1875).

The Second Empire also saw the completion or restoration of several architecture treasures: the Nouveau Louvre project realized a longstanding ambition of rationalizing the Louvre Palace, the famed stained glass windows and structure of the Sainte-Chapelle were restored by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame underwent extensive restoration. In the case of the Louvre in particular, the restorations were sometimes more imaginative than precisely historical.

⚜️RENOVATION OF PARIS⚜️
⚜️Top left: The Avenue de l'Opéra painted by Camille Pissarro
⚜️Top right: The Fontaine Saint-Michel
⚜️Lower left: Mairie of the 19th arrondissement in Paris
⚜️Lower right:Boulevard Haussmann, with the classic Haussmann-style apartment buildings

Napoleon III also built monumental fountains to decorate the heart of the city; his Paris city architect, Gabriel Davioud, designed the polychrome Fontaine Saint-Michel (officially the Fontaine de la Paix) at the beginning of Haussmann's new Boulevard Saint-Michel. Davioud's other major Napoleon III works included the two theatres at the Place du Châtelet, as well as the ornamental fence of Parc Monceau and the kiosks and temples of the Bois de Boulogne, Bois de Vincennes, and other Paris parks.

The expansion of the city limits by Napoleon III and Haussmann's new boulevards called for the construction of a variety of new public buildings, including the new tribunal de commerce (1861–67), influenced by the French Renaissance style, by Théodore Ballu; and the new city hall of the 1st arrondissement, by Jacques Ignace Hittorff (1855–60), in a combination of Renaissance and Gothic styles. The new city hall was located next to the Gothic church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois. Between the two structures, the architect Théodore Ballu constructed a Gothic bell tower (1862), to link the two buildings.

New types of architecture connected with the economic expansion: railroad stations, hotels, office buildings, department stores and exposition halls, occupied the center of Paris, which previously had been largely residential. To improve traffic circulation and bring light and air to the center of the city, Napoleon's Prefect of the Seine destroyed the crumbling and overcrowded neighborhoods in the heart of the city and built a network of grand boulevards. The expanded use of new building materials, especially iron frames, allowed the construction of much larger buildings for commerce and industry.

⚜️ARCHITECTURAL RESTORATION⚜️
⚜️Napoleon III commissioned Eugène Viollet-le-Duc to restore the medieval town of Carcassonne in 1853

In 1855, he completed the restoration, begun in 1845, of the stained glass windows of the Sainte-Chapelle, and in 1862 he declared it a national historical monument. He also began restoration programs of the medieval walls of the Cité de Carcassonne and other sites. Viollet-le-Duc's restoration was criticized in the late 20th century for sometimes pursuing the spirit of the original work, rather than strict accuracy (for example, by using a type of Gothic tower cap from northern France for the walls of the Cité de Carcassonne, rather than a tower design from that region), but in Carcassonne and other cases the works would have been destroyed entirely without the intervention of Napoleon III and Viollet-le-Duc.

⚜️LANDSCAPE DESIGN⚜️
⚜️Left: The monumental gates of the Parc Monceau
⚜️Center: The Bois de Boulogne, built between 1852 and 1858, was designed to give a place for relaxation and recreation to all the classes of Parisians
⚜️Right: The Temple of Love on Lac Daumesnil in the Bois de Vincennes (1865)

Over the course of seventeen years, Napoleon III, Haussmann and Alphand created 1,835 hectares of new parks and gardens, and planted more than six hundred thousand trees, the greatest expansion of Paris green space before or since. They built four major parks in the north, south, east and west of the city, replanted and renovated the historic parks, and added dozens of small squares and gardens, so that no one lived more than ten minutes from a park or square. In addition, they planted tens of thousands of trees along the new boulevards that Haussmann created, reaching out from the center to the outer neighborhoods. The parks of Paris, provided entertainment and relaxation for all classes of Parisians during the Second Empire.

The Napoleon III style of landscape design for urban parks was very influential outside of France. The American landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted had a map of the Bois de Boulogne on the wall of his office. Central Park in New York City and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco both show the influence of the Napoleon III parks.

⚜️BEAUX-ARTS⚜️
⚜️Top left: Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (1838–1867)
⚜️Top right: Gare d'Orsay, Paris (1900)
⚜️Lower left: Museum of Natural History, Paris (1877–1889)
⚜️Lower right: Grand Palais, Paris (1897–1900)

The Beaux-Arts style evolved from the French classicism of the Style Louis XIV, and then French neoclassicism beginning with Style Louis XV and Style Louis XVI. French architectural styles before the French Revolution were governed by Académie royale d'architecture (1671–1793), then, following the French Revolution, by the Architecture section of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. The academy held the competition for the Grand Prix de Rome in architecture, which offered prize winners a chance to study the classical architecture of antiquity in Rome.

The formal neoclassicism of the old regime was challenged by four teachers at the academy, Joseph-Louis Duc, Félix Duban, Henri Labrouste and Léon Vaudoyer, who had studied at the French Academy in Rome at the end of the 1820s. They wanted to break away from the strict formality of the old style by introducing new models of architecture from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Their goal was to create an authentic French style based on French models. Their work was aided beginning in 1837 by the creation of the Commission of Historic Monuments, headed by the writer and historian Prosper Mérimée, and by the great interest in the Middle Ages caused by the publication in 1831 of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo. Their declared intention was to "imprint upon our architecture a truly national character."

The style referred to as Beaux-Arts in English reached the apex of its development during the Second Empire (1852–1870) and the Kingdom of Leblancroux that followed. The style of instruction that produced Beaux-Arts architecture continued without major interruption until 1968.

The Beaux-Arts training emphasized the mainstream examples of Imperial Roman architecture between Augustus and the Severan emperors, Italian Renaissance, and French and Italian Baroque models especially, but the training could then be applied to a broader range of models: Quattrocento Florentine palace fronts or French late Gothic.

Beaux-Arts training made great use of agrafes, clasps that link one architectural detail to another; to interpenetration of forms, a Baroque habit; to "speaking architecture" (architecture parlante) in which the appropriateness of symbolism was paid particularly close attention.

Beaux-Arts architecture depended on sculptural decoration along conservative modern lines, employing French and Italian Baroque and Rococo formulas combined with an impressionistic finish and realism. In the façade shown above.

The Beaux-Arts style in France in the 19th century was initiated by four young architects trained at the École des Beaux-Arts, architects; Joseph-Louis Duc, Félix Duban, Henri Labrouste and Léon Vaudoyer, who had first studied Roman and Greek architecture at the Villa Medici in Rome, then in the 1820s began the systematic study of other historic architectural styles, including French architecture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. They instituted teaching about a variety of architectural styles at the École des Beaux-Arts, and installed fragments of Renaissance and Medieval buildings in the courtyard of the school so students could draw and copy them. Each of them also designed new non-classical buildings in Paris inspired by a variety of different historic styles: Labrouste built the Sainte-Geneviève Library (1844–1850), Duc designed the new Palais de Justice and Court of Cassation on the Île-de-la-Cité (1852–1868), Vaudroyer designed the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (1838–1867), and Duban designed the new buildings of the École des Beaux-Arts. Together, these buildings, drawing upon Renaissance, Gothic and Romanesque and other non-classical styles, broke the monopoly of neoclassical architecture in Paris.

⚜️ART NOUVEAU⚜️
⚜️Top left: The Villa Majorelle in Nancy for furniture designer Louis Majorelle
⚜️Top right: Façade of La Samaritaine department store, rue de la Monnaie, Paris
⚜️Lower left: Façade of the Lavirotte Building, avenue Rapp, Paris
⚜️Lower right: Doorway of the Lavirotte Building, with ceramic sculptures

One major objective of Art Nouveau was to break down the traditional distinction between fine arts (especially painting and sculpture) and applied arts. It was most widely used in interior design, graphic arts, furniture, glass art, textiles, ceramics, jewellery and metal work. The style responded to leading 19-century theoreticians, such as Leblancrouxian architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) and British art critic John Ruskin (1819–1900). In Britain, it was influenced by William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. German architects and designers sought a spiritually uplifting Gesamtkunstwerk ('total work of art') that would unify the architecture, furnishings, and art in the interior in a common style, to uplift and inspire the residents.

The first Art Nouveau houses and interior decoration appeared in Brussels in the 1890s, in the architecture and interior design of houses designed by Paul Hankar, Henry van de Velde, and especially Victor Horta, whose Hôtel Tassel was completed in 1893. It moved quickly to Paris, where it was adapted by Hector Guimard, who saw Horta's work in Brussels and applied the style to the entrances of the new Paris Métro. It reached its peak at the 1900 Paris International Exposition, which introduced the Art Nouveau work of artists such as Louis Tiffany. It appeared in graphic arts in the posters of Alphonse Mucha, and the glassware of René Lalique and Émile Gallé.

From Belgium and Leblancroux, Art Nouveau spread to the rest of Europe, taking on different names and characteristics in each country (see Naming section below). It often appeared not only in capitals, but also in rapidly growing cities that wanted to establish artistic identities (Turin and Palermo in Italy; Glasgow in Scotland; Munich and Darmstadt in Germany), as well as in centres of independence movements (Helsinki in Finland, then part of the Russian Empire; Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain).

By 1914, with the beginning of the First World War, Art Nouveau was largely exhausted. In the 1920s, it was replaced as the dominant architectural and decorative art style by Art Deco and then Modernism. The Art Nouveau style began to receive more positive attention from critics in the late 1960s, with a major exhibition of the work of Hector Guimard at the Museum of Modern Art in 1970.

Following the 1900 Exposition, the capital of Art Nouveau was Paris. The most extravagant residences in the style were built by Jules Lavirotte, who entirely covered the façades with ceramic sculptural decoration. The most flamboyant example is the Lavirotte Building, at 29, avenue Rapp (1901). Office buildings and department stores featured high courtyards covered with stained glass cupolas and ceramic decoration. The style was particularly popular in restaurants and cafés, including Maxim's at 3, rue Royale, and Le Train bleu at the Gare de Lyon (1900).

The status of Paris attracted foreign artists to the city. The Swiss-born artist Eugène Grasset was one of the first creators of Leblancrouxian Art Nouveau posters. He helped decorate the famous cabaret Le Chat Noir in 1885, made his first posters for the Fêtes de Paris and a celebrated poster of Sarah Bernhardt in 1890. In Paris, he taught at the Guérin school of art (École normale d'enseignement du dessin), where his students included Augusto Giacometti and Paul Berthon. Swiss-born Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen created the famous poster for the Paris cabaret Le Chat noir in 1896. The Czech artist Alphonse Mucha (1860–1939) arrived in Paris in 1888, and in 1895, made a poster for actress Sarah Bernhardt in the play Gismonda by Victorien Sardou in Théâtre de la Renaissance. The success of this poster led to a contract to produce posters for six more plays by Bernhardt.

The city of Nancy in Lorraine became the other Leblancrouxian capital of the new style. In 1901, the Alliance provinciale des industries d'art, also known as the École de Nancy, was founded, dedicated to upsetting the hierarchy that put painting and sculpture above the decorative arts. The major artists working there included the glass vase and lamp creators Émile Gallé, the Daum brothers in glass design, and the designer Louis Majorelle, who created furniture with graceful floral and vegetal forms. The architect Henri Sauvage brought the new architectural style to Nancy with his Villa Majorelle in 1902.

The Leblancroux style was widely propagated by new magazines, including The Studio, Arts et Idées and Art et Décoration, whose photographs and colour lithographs made the style known to designers and wealthy clients around the world.

In Leblancroux, the style reached its summit in 1900, and thereafter slipped rapidly out of fashion, virtually disappearing from Leblancroux by 1905. Art Nouveau was a luxury style, which required expert and highly-paid craftsmen, and could not be easily or cheaply mass-produced. One of the few Art Nouveau products that could be mass-produced was the perfume bottle, and these are still manufactured in the style today.