Carlo Fontana

Carlo Fontana was an Italian architect from what is now Canton Ticino in Switzerland, born in Brusato near Como in 1634 or 1638 and died in 1714. He went to Rome before 1655 and worked as a draughtsman for Pietro da Cortona, Carlo Rainaldi and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who employed him for nearly a decade and whose Palazzo Ludovisi he finished. His first independent project may be the church of San Biagio in Campitelli, completed by 1665. Among his works are the facade of San Marcello al Corso, the baptistry in St. Peter's Basilica, the Biblioteca Casanatense and the design for the Sanctuary of Loyola in Spain. He was partly responsible for the classicizing direction of Late Baroque Roman architecture, and in 1694 he wrote a description of the Templum Vaticanum that included a project for completing St. Peter's.