(b St Gall, 1 Oct 1858; d Lucerne, 11 Jan 1927). Swiss architect. After studying architecture for two years (c. 1876–8) at the Hochschule, Stuttgart, under Adolf Gnauth and Christian Friedrich Leins (1814–92), he travelled in Italy and France. From 1879 he worked primarily in St Gall, but he also worked elsewhere in Switzerland. He won a gold medal at the Vatican Exhibition (1887–8), and in 1888 he was made a Knight of St Gregory the Great by Pope Leo XIII. Hardegger was an eclectic architect, using all the traditional historicist styles. His designs were often asymmetrical and irregular in both plan and elevation, as in the church of St Martin (1908–10), Olten; they also incorporated painting and sculpture, for example in the Haus zum Bürgli (before 1890), at St Gall, and they emphasized regional traditions, as at the parish church of Göschenen (1898–9). Following the construction of the parish church at Gossau (1890–91), the centralized interior became a hallmark of Hardegger’s sacred buildings. In the Liebfrauenkirche (1893–4), Zurich, he created the most important evocation of an Early Christian basilica in Switzerland by merging several historical models in a single building. Hardegger’s oeuvre includes restoration and conservation, such as the lengthening of the church of St Peter (1885–7) at Wil, and the historical investigation of indigenous art, seen in his work on the Stiftskirche, St Gall, which earned him a doctorate in 1917. He was a leading architect of his day and his importance lies particularly in his Roman Catholic churches, although his influence was not widespread.