The year 1856 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.

Buildings and structures

Buildings opened

• February – State Library of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, designed by Joseph Reed^[1]
• May 15 – Rumeli Feneri, Istanbul, Turkey^[2]
• August 31 – The Esztergom Basilica in Hungary, designed by Pál Kühnel and József Hild (consecrated)
• October 4 – Lindau Lighthouse, Bavaria
• November 1 – Stamford Water Street railway station in Lincolnshire, England, designed by William Hurst^[3]

Buildings completed

• Debating chambers of Parliament House, Melbourne, Australia, designed by General Charles Pasley
• Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, Turkey.
• Landherrnamt, Bremen, Germany, designed by Alexander Schröder in the Neo-Romanesque style^[4]
• Walnut Hall, Toronto, Canada, designed by John Tully as O'Donohoe Row (demolished 2007)^[5]

Events

• Future English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy is apprenticed to architect James Hicks in Dorchester, Dorset.

Awards

• RIBA Royal Gold Medal – William Tite.
• Grand Prix de Rome, architecture: Edmond Guillaume.

Births

• January 7 – Sydney Mitchell, Scottish architect (died 1930)
• January 21 – Gustaf Nyström, Finnish architect (died 1917)
• February 12 – Hendrik Petrus Berlage, Dutch architect (died 1934)
• August 5 – Axel Berg, Danish architect (died 1929)
• September 3 – Louis Sullivan, American architect, "father of skyscrapers"^[6] (died 1924)
• September 23 – John Bilson, English architect and architectural historian (died 1943)
• October 30 – Edward Prioleau Warren, English architect (died 1937)
• December 20 – Reginald Blomfield, English architect (died 1942)
• date unknown – Eugène Vallin, French architect, furniture designer and manufacturer (died 1922)

Deaths

• March 20 – Robert Reid, King's architect and surveyor for Scotland from 1827 to 1839 (born 1774)^[7]
• March 27 – David Laing, British architect (born 1774)^[8]