The New International Encyclopædia/Gärtner, Friedrich von

GÄRTNER, gĕrt'nẽr, Friedrich von (1792-1847). A distinguished German architect, born at Coblenz. His father, also an architect, removed in 1804 to Munich, where young Gärtner received his first education in architecture. To complete that education, he went in 1812 to Paris, where he studied under Percier, and in 1814 to Italy, where he spent four years in the earnest study of antiquities. The fruits of this labor appeared in 1819 in some views accompanied by descriptions of the principal monuments of Sicily (Ansichten der am meisten erhaltenen Monumente Siciliens). After a visit to England he was called, in 1820, to the chair of architecture in the Academy of Munich. With this appointment began his work as a practical architect. Many of the architectural masterpieces of Munich, and various other buildings throughout Germany, as well as the new royal palace at Athens (1836), are built after his plans. Among his Munich buildings are the Ludwigskirche, the Feldherrn-Halle, the Library, University, and the Wittelsbacher Palace (1831-44). In the style of his works, which have all a common impress, Gärtner represents the Renaissance of mediæval architecture in its Romanesque form. It was thus peculiarly appropriate that he should have charge of the restoration of the mediæval cathedrals of Speier, Regensburg, and Bamberg. Gärtner became head Government surveyor of buildings and director of the Academy of Arts in Munich.