Louis Delacenserie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Louis (Joseph Jean Baptiste) Delacenserie (Bruges, 7 September 1838 - Bruges, 2 September 1909) was a Belgian architect who designed the central station in Antwerp, Belgium.
The family name was written often in a different manner: Delacenserie, Delasencerie, Divided Censerie and Divided Sencerie.
His father Louis Delacenserie was a merchant from Doornik and later on a contractor.
Between 1850 and 1857, he trained in Bruges, under Jean-Brunon Rudd (1792-1870), City Architect of Bruges.
As a young architect he wanted to work with the Ghent architect Louis Roelandt, known for his neoclassicism. Therefore it is not surprising that his first designs, dating to 1870, are conventional of style, such as the front row in the Niklaas Desparsstraat (Bruges).
He became in 1862 laureat of the prestigious Prize of Rome for architecture. With the purse, that he had won because of this, he travelled to Paris, Italy and Greece.
He turned back to Bruges and became there, after the death of Jean-Brunon Rudd, in 1870 the City's architect until 1892 (he was followed by Charles De Wulf). He also was appointed as teacher of architecture at the Academy of Bruges, where he became manager - the name of the academy had already been changed ton 'Urban Academy'. He was appointed in 1879 member of the provincial Committee of the "Royal Commission for Monuments".
As City Architect he set about the restoration of the old fronts. He had a thorough knowledge of the medieval techniques, but for the actual skeleton he always used contemporary techniques.
In the neogothic style, he restored different Bruges buildings including:
- the basilica (1870-1877)
- the Tolhuis (1879)
- Gruuthusecomplex (1883-1895) (east and south wings)
- the city hall (1894-1895 and 1903-1904)
- the Sashuis (1895-1897)
- the post office on the Market
- the Poortersloge (1899-1903)
- the west front of the Church of Our Lady (1905-1909).
Because of this the view of Bruges was changed slowly to a neogothic open air museum.
Near to Bruges he worked on:
- City hall of Diksmuide (1877-1900)
- the normal school of Bruges (1880-1883)
- the Saint-Jan hospital in Bruges
- the Central Station of Antwerp (1894-1898), built in an eclectic style and with the station hall in neobaroque. This railroad cathedral, the high point in Belgian raiilway station architecture, is often used as scenery in films.
- The Saint-Peter-and-Paul Church (1901-1905) of Oostende. This is perhaps his well-known work.
- The barracks in Oostende.
Louis never married.
