Josef Anton or Joseph-Antoine Froelicher or Frölicher (1790 - 9 January 1866, Paris) was a Swiss architect.

Coming from an old middle class family from Solothurn

Solothurn

The city of Solothurn is the capital of the Canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. The city also comprises the only municipality of the district of the same name.-Pre-roman settlement:...

, Froelicher begins his architectural studies in Switzerland, receiving his degree in Solothurn in 1809. He then left for Paris, endowed with a pension from the Swiss government to complete his studies in Paris. He entered the école des Beaux-Arts

École des Beaux-Arts

École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...

 in 1809, gallicizing his name into Joseph Antoine Frelicher, then Froelicher.

Architect to many families of the high French aristocracy, he built many château

Château

A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...

x and hôtels particuliers

Hôtel particulier

In French contexts an hôtel particulier is an urban "private house" of a grand sort. Whereas an ordinary maison was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a street, an hôtel particulier was often free-standing, and by the 18th century it...

. A Legitimist monarchist

Legitimists

Legitimists are royalists in France who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession of the descendants of the elder branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They reject the claim of the July Monarchy of 1830–1848, whose kings were members of the junior...

, he became the official architect to the duchess of Berry, which brought him much ill-feeling at the time of the July Revolution

July Revolution

The French Revolution of 1830, also known as the July Revolution or in French, saw the overthrow of King Charles X of France, the French Bourbon monarch, and the ascent of his cousin Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orléans, who himself, after 18 precarious years on the throne, would in turn be overthrown...

. He was made a naturalised Frenchman in 1821, and his daughter married the architect Henri Parent

Henri Parent

Henri Parent was a French architect.Son-in-law of the architect Joseph-Antoine Froelicher, Henri Parent restored and transformed several hôtels particuliers in the Faubourg Saint-Germain for high aristocratic families...

.