Victor Hugo's architectural drawings on view at Maison Victor Hugo

The Maison Victor Hugo in Paris is presenting 'Hugo et l'architecture. De la pierre à la plume' from June 11 to November 22, 2026. The exhibition explores the essential role of architecture in Victor Hugo's written and drawn work, revealing him as an inventor of fantastical buildings from his imagination. Hugo famously called architecture 'the greatest book of humanity' in Notre-Dame de Paris (1831). The show includes drawings such as 'Phare d'Eddystone' (1866) and the monumental 'Burg à la croix' (1850), where ink-drowned details verge on abstraction. Hugo's passion for old monuments began in childhood; a trip to Spain at age ten left him 'intoxicated' by cathedrals and gabled houses, according to his wife Adèle. He sketched castles, abbeys, and churches during travels in France and Belgium, and also collected photographs in his 'Album Phébus'. The exhibition highlights his visionary architectural fantasies, blending Goya's chiaroscuro with Piranesi's architectural terror, as described by Théophile Gautier. Hugo's defense of heritage, including his campaign against revolutionary vandalism and his role in saving Notre-Dame de Paris, is also contextualized.