Architect

Vincenzo Scamozzi

The architect whose grandest vision for Salzburg was never built. Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau hired Vincenzo Scamozzi, a pupil of Palladio and one of the most influential architects of the Italian Renaissance, to design…

Born2 September 1548, Vicenza, Republic of Venice
Died7 August 1616, Venice
NationalityIT

The architect whose grandest vision for Salzburg was never built. Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau hired Vincenzo Scamozzi, a pupil of Palladio and one of the most influential architects of the Italian Renaissance, to design a monumental new cathedral on the scale of St. Peter's in Rome. After Wolf Dietrich's downfall in 1612, the project died with his ambitions.

The cathedral that was eventually built (1614-1628, under Santino Solari) was considerably more modest than Scamozzi's grand vision. But his influence on Salzburg's baroque ambitions is part of the city's architectural history. He also contributed to the initial design of the Residenz.

Scamozzi's primary fame rests elsewhere: his completion of Palladio's Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza and his theoretical treatise L'Idea dell'Architettura Universale (1615). Salzburg was one stop in a career that shaped European architecture.

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