Pascal Coste

Xavier Pascal Coste ( born November 29, 1787 Marseille, † February 7, 1879 ) was a French engineer and architect who gained notoriety in particular as a draftsman and painter.

The son of a Bautischlers studied under Michel Robert Penchaud (1772-1833) at the École des Beaux -Arts in Marseille and the École nationale supérieure des beaux -arts de Paris.

From 1817-1822 and 1823-1827, he lived and traveled through Egypt, where he designed several industrial buildings commissioned by Muhammad Ali Pasha. With his album "Architecture arabe et monuments du Caire " he delivered a detailed documentation of Islamic Art in Cairo. Together with Jules Laurens, he published the book " Description de l' Egypte ".

In 1829 he was appointed professor at the École d'architecture de Marseille professor. His knowledge of the Arabic language and of ancient architecture attracted the attention of the Institut de France and the French Foreign Ministry, which, under the authority of the Académie des Beaux -Arts and the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres, together with the painter Eugène Flandin (1803 - 1876) from 1839 to 1841, sent as a group, the then French ambassador, the Comte de Sercey to the court of the Shah of Persia. Here the joint works " Voyage en Perse " (1843 ) and "La Perse ancienne " (1848 ) emerged. Later appeared on the basis of local works the album " Esfahan de l' année 1840 " with drawings of the city of Isfahan.

His architectural designs were often regarded in Europe as too costly, so it rarely came to execution. In 1852 he sat as an architect at a tender for the construction of a building for industry and Commerce of Marseille (Palais de la Bourse), which built in 1860 and Napoleon III. was inaugurated. Today in the building the navy and merchant Museum ( Musée de la Marine et de l' Économie ) is housed.