Fontana, Domenico (1543-1607)

Italian architect, born in Melide, Canton Tizino. In 1563 he went to Rome where Cardinal Felice Peretti became his patron. Under his auspices Fontana built a chapel in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in 1581 and the Villa Montalto in 1578. When Peretti was elected pope as Sixtus V, Fontana was appointed papal architect and undertook various important commissions in Rome, notably the Lateran Palace (1586-88), the Quirinal, and the Vatican library (1587-90). He also assisted in the completion of the dome of St Peter's (1587-90).

The engineering achievement for which he gained renown was the removal of the Egyptian obelisk (brought to Rome in the time of Caligula) from Nero's circus (now Piazza Pia) to the Piazza of St Peter's (1586); of this event he published an account (Della Trasportatione dell'obeliso vaticano/On the Transportation of the Vatican Obelisk). When Clement VIII became pope, Fontana was dismissed and went to Naples, where he became architect to the viceroy, the Count of Miranda, and built the Royal Palace (1600-02).