This paper addresses the question regarding the nature of the relationship between history and practice in architecture - particularly in France during the Nineteenth Century. It includes an analysis of three famous architects’ concrete experiences: Hittorff and Garnier (from the School of Fine Arts) and who significantly influenced the European architectural culture with their buildings and writings and Viollet-le-Duc who did so with his teaching. The analysis centers on the role of the history of architecture as an avatar of architectural literature and the contiguity between history and the architectural project.