MÉTEZEAU, French family of architects

The family came originally from Dreux, Eure-et-Loir. Clément Métezeau I (d. c. 1545) was in charge of construction work on the church of Saint-Pierre and the Belfry in Dreux, during the reign of Francis I. His elder son, Jean Métezeau (d. 1600), continued the construction of Saint-Pierre (the Saint-Vincent tower and the south transept). His younger son, Thibaut Métezeau (1533-c. 1586), collaborated with the family before establishing himself in 1569 in Paris, where he worked on the construction of the Tuileries under the direction of Philibert Delorme, on the funerary chapel of the Valois family at Saint-Denis (1572-82) and on the Pont Neuf (1578). As architect to the Duc d'Alençon and to Henry III he built the triumphal arch of the Porte Saint-Antoine. He was the father of the architects Louis Métezeau (1559-1615) and Clément Métezeau II (1581-1652).