Biography
Life & work
Gilbert Hippolyte Viala de Sorbier was a French architect born in La Flèche in 1817. A student of Labrouste, he served as the head of the civil buildings department in Oran from 1850 until 1872, when the position was abolished. The following year, on January 19, 1873, he was appointed diocesan architect of Oran but resigned on July 22, 1874, after constructing a tower bearing the statue of the Virgin (Our Lady of Santa Cruz) at a significantly higher cost than initially estimated, causing discontent among church authorities. Throughout his career, he designed the Oran prison and built eighteen churches across Algeria, including the Saint-Louis Church in Tlemcen. He exhibited at the 1869 Salon and was honored with the Legion of Honor in 1860. From 1872 to 1878, he was a corresponding member of the Academy of Fine Arts in the architecture section. He passed away in 1878.
