VIOLLET-LE-DUC, EUGENE EMMANUEL (1814 1879), French architect and writer on archaeology, was born in Paris on Jan. 21, 1814 and died at Lausanne on Sept. 17, He was a pupil of Achille Leclere, and in 1836-37 studied Greek and Roman architecture in Sicily and Rome. His chief interest was in the art of the Gothic period, and he was employed to restore some of the chief mediaeval buildings of France, his earliest works of restoration being the abbey church of Vezelay, St. Michel at Carcassonne, the church of Semur in Cote-d'Or, and the Gothic town halls of Saint-Antonin and Narbonne, be tween 184o and 185o. From 1845 to 1856 he restored Notre Dame in Paris in conjunction with Lassus, and the abbey of St. Denis ; in 1849 he began the restoration of the fortifications of Carcassonne and of Amiens cathedral.
As a writer on mediaeval architecture and the kindred arts he takes the highest rank. His two great dictionaries are the standard works in their class, and are most beautifully illustrated.