The Buttes-Chaumont, Montsouris, Monceau, the gardens of the Champs-Élysées and the two woods all came off his drawing board, alongside Haussmann. Director of Works for Paris in 1870, he took on the Water Department as well. His stone lines up administrative titles without a word about the parks he had created.
The story
Born in Grenoble on 26 October 1817, an engineer of the ponts et chaussées, Alphand joined Haussmann in Paris in 1852. With the engineer Belgrand for water and the gardener Barillet-Deschamps for planting, he formed the team that would give the capital its promenades.
In eighteen years he drew or redrew the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes, the parc Monceau, the parc Montsouris, the Buttes-Chaumont, the square du Temple and the gardens of the Champs-Élysées. The method never varied: an invented relief, water brought in, and species chosen to hold up in the air of the city.
When Haussmann was dismissed in 1870, his successor Léon Say handed Alphand the direction of the works of Paris. On Belgrand's death in 1878 he took the water service as well; in 1884 he was co-author of the Paris planning regulations.
He designed the gardens of the Trocadéro for the Exposition of 1878 and prepared the Exposition of 1889, which brought him the grand cross of the Legion of Honour on 4 May of that year.
He died in Paris on 6 December 1891 and lies in Division 66. Eight years later the City raised him a second monument on the avenue Foch, by Formigé and the sculptor Dalou, where he stands among his collaborators above reliefs of working men.
The grave
A bronze bust by the sculptor Jules Coutan, cast by the firm of Thiébaut Frères, dominates a stone whose text is purely administrative: “Alphand, inspector-general of bridges and roads, Director of Works for Paris, Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, 1817-1891”. Not a word about the Buttes-Chaumont or the two woods. His wife, Jeanne Élisabeth Holagray, who died on 3 March 1902, rests with him. The plot is maintained free of charge by the City of Paris — the very city whose gardens he had designed.
On site, do not miss
Coutan's bronze bust and the list of his titles engraved beneath it — “Director of Works for Paris” without a word about the parks he designed.
Visitors' questions
Where is Adolphe Alphand's grave?
In Division 66, Chemin d'Ornano, first row, in the upper part of the cemetery. The plot is maintained free of charge by the City of Paris; the singer Marietta Alboni rests in the same division, on Avenue Circulaire.
Rufino José CuervoWhich parks did Adolphe Alphand create?
The Buttes-Chaumont, Parc Montsouris, Parc Monceau, Square du Temple, the gardens of the Champs-Élysées and Trocadéro, and the layout of the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes — essentially all of Paris's parkland.
Michel AdansonWhat was his role alongside Haussmann?
He ran the parks and plantations of Paris from 1852 onward, alongside Belgrand for water works and Barillet-Deschamps for gardens. After Haussmann's dismissal in 1870, he himself took over direction of the city's public works.
Adolphe BrongniartIs there another monument to Alphand?
Yes, on Avenue Foch in the 16th arrondissement, unveiled on 14 December 1899: the engineer is shown standing among his colleagues, the work of the architect Formigé and the sculptor Dalou. Streets bear his name in both Paris and Grenoble.
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