After serving an apprenticeship to a mason in his native city, he went in 1810 to
Paris, and studied for some years at the
Académie des Beaux-Arts while working concurrently as a draughtsman for
Charles Percier. At the Académie, he was a favourite pupil of the government architect
François-Joseph Bélanger, who employed him in the construction of one of the first
cast-iron constructions in France, the cast-iron and glass dome of the
grain market,
Halle au Blé (1808–13). In 1814, Bélanger appointed Hittorff his principal inspector on construction sites. Succeeding Bélanger as government architect in 1818, Hittorff designed many important public and private buildings in Paris and also in the south of France. From 1819 to 1830, in collaboration with
Jean-François-Joseph Lecointe he directed the royal fêtes and ceremonials, which the two architects inherited from Bélanger. Hittorff also designed a new building for the
Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique with Lecointe. After making architectural tours in
Germany,
England,
Italy and
Sicily, Hittorff published the result of his Sicilian observations in
Architecture antique de la Sicile (3 volumes, 1826–1830; revised, 1866–1867), and also in
Architecture moderne de la Sicile (1826–1835). '' One of his important discoveries was that colour had been employed in ancient Greek architecture, a subject which he especially discussed in
Architecture polychrome chez les Grecs (1830) and in ''Restitution du temple d'Empédocle à Sélinonte'' (1851). In accordance with the doctrines enunciated in these works, he was in the habit of making colour an important feature in most of his architectural designs. Hittorff was part of the team that designed the
Grand Hôtel du Louvre in Paris, which opened in 1855 in time for the
Exposition Universelle. He worked on this project with
Alfred Armand (1805–88),
Auguste Pellechet (1829-1903) and
Charles Rohault de Fleury (1801–75). ==See also==