1856 in architecture
# 1856 in architecture

The year 1856 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.

## Buildings and structures

### Buildings opened

* February – State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, designed by Joseph Reed
* May 15 – Rumeli Feneri, Istanbul, Turkey
* August 31 – The Esztergom Basilica in Hungary, designed by Pál Kühnel and József Hild (consecrated)
* October 4 – Lindau Lighthouse, Bavaria
* November 1 – Stamford Water Street railway station in Lincolnshire, England, designed by William Hurst

### Buildings completed

* Debating chambers of Parliament House, Melbourne, Australia, designed by General Charles Pasley
* Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, Turkey.
* Landherrnamt, Bremen, Germany, designed by Alexander Schröder in the Neo-Romanesque style
* Walnut Hall, Toronto, Canada, designed by John Tully as O'Donohoe Row (demolished 2007)

## Events

* Future English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy is apprenticed to architect James Hicks in Dorchester, Dorset.

## Awards

* RIBA Royal Gold Medal – William Tite.
* Grand Prix de Rome, architecture: Edmond Guillaume.

## Births

* January 7 – Sydney Mitchell, Scottish architect (died 1930)
* January 21 – Gustaf Nyström, Finnish architect (died 1917)
* February 12 – Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Dutch architect (died 1934)
* August 5 – Axel Berg, Danish architect (died 1929)
* September 3 – Louis Sullivan, American architect, "father of skyscrapers" (died 1924)
* September 23 – John Bilson, English architect and architectural historian (died 1943)
* October 30 – Edward Prioleau Warren, English architect (died 1937)
* December 20 – Reginald Blomfield, English architect (died 1942)
* date unknown – Eugène Vallin, French architect, furniture designer and manufacturer (died 1922)

## Deaths

* March 20 – Robert Reid, King's architect and surveyor for Scotland from 1827 to 1839 (born 1774)
* March 27 – David Laing, British architect (born 1774)
