Francesco Battaglia (architect)

Francesco Battaglia (* 1701 in Catania ; † 1788 ibid) was an Italian architect of the late Baroque in Sicily .

Life

Battaglia was one of the architects who rebuilt the towns there after the severe earthquake of 1693 in the Val di Noto (administrative unit in south-east Sicily) and gave them their unmistakable baroque appearance.

He initially worked as an ornament sculptor ("incisor lapidum") on construction sites in Catania. Based on the role models of architects working in the region such as Giovanni Battista Vaccarini (1702–1768) and through the study of theoretical writings on architecture such as Giovanni Biagio Amico's work "L'Architetto Pratico", he trained as an architect.

His name appears in Catania for the first time in 1732 in connection with the Benedictine monastery of San Nicolò l'Arena . In 1747 he designed the sacristy of the monastery church as the successor to the architect Andrea Amato . Stylistically, he differed from Vaccarini in that he tended towards Roman classicism . In 1755 parts of the church collapsed due to structural defects. The construction management then passed to Giuseppe Palazotto (1702–1764),

Numerous buildings followed in the Val di Noto. From 1765 Battaglia worked with the Polish architect Stefano Ittar (1724–1790), who had come to Catania via Rome and took over the construction management of the Benedictine monastery as Palazzotto's successor. Ittar married Battaglia's daughter Rosaria in 1767.

In 1773 Battaglia was appointed city architect, and in 1779 he was given the chair of practical geometry and architecture at the University of Catania .

His son Antonio Battaglia (* around 1750; † around 1815), who also worked as an architect, created the churches of Sant'Agata alla Fornace and Sant'Agostino as well as the facade of the church della Purità in Catania.

Works (selection)

• Monastero di San Nicolò l'Arena (Catania) : Construction management as successor to Andrea Amato (from 1732), design of the sacristy (1747)
• Chiesa della Santissima Trinità (Catania): from 1745
• Basilica di San Filippo d'Agira ( Aci San Filippo ): from 1759
• Chiesa madre ( Aci Castello ): Completion (1760)
• San Michele ai Minoriti (Catania): design (1760)
• Santo Stefano ( Caltagirone ): 1762
• Palazzo Biscari (Catania): after the death of Giuseppe Palazotto construction management for the extension (1764)
• San Nicolò ( Militello in Val di Catania ): around 1755, bell tower (1765)
• Chiesa madre (Caltagirone): Restoration (1766)
• Chiesa del Carmine (Catania): design of the facade (1766), attribution
• Porta Garibaldi, formerly Porta Ferdinandea (Catania): together with Stefano Ittar (1768)
• Piazza San Filippo (Catania): 1768/69
• Chiesa di San Camillo (Catania): draft
• Chiesa Santa Maria del Monte (Caltagirone): Reconstruction based on a design by Battaglia
• Tondo Vecchio (Caltagirone)
• Chiesa di San Giuseppe ( Aci Catena )
• Santa Maria della Stella (Militello in Val di Catania)

literature

• Maria Giuffrè: Baroque Sicily . Michael Imhof, Petersberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-86568-264-2 .
• Vito Librando: Francesco Battaglia, architetto del XVIII secolo. In: Cronache di archeologia e storia dell'arte, Volume 2, Catania 1963, ISSN  0011-1767 , pp. 129-154.
• Angeli Zalapi: Palaces in Sicily . Könemann, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-8290-2117-8 .

Web links

http://www.wikideep.it/francesco-battaglia/