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Stefano Ittar (March 15, 1724 - January 18, 1790) was a Polish-Italian architect.
Ittar was born inOwrucz (then in thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, now inUkraine), where his father, a member of one of Italy's aristocratic families the Guidone de Hittar, had fled following a disagreement with theGrand Duke of Tuscany.
While Ittar was still young his family moved toRome, where under the patronage ofCardinalAlessandro Albani Ittar later studiedarchitecture at this time influenced in Rome by the concepts ofFrancesco Borromini.[1]
After a brief period in Spain Ittar settled inCatania in 1765. Catania had largely recovered from the damage caused by theearthquake of 1693, largely due to the efforts of the city architectGiovanni Battista Vaccarini, who had rebuilt vast tracts of the city inBaroque style, such as the area around theCathedral.[2] It was at this time Ittar met DonIgnazio Paternò,Prince of Biscari, who at this time was reconstructing the massivePalazzo Biscari. The Prince of Biscari one of the richest and most cultivated of Sicily's many aristocrats was to become Ittar's patron for many years. Ittar was later to marry Rosaria Battaglia, the daughter ofFrancesco Battaglia, the architect of the Palazzo Biscari.
Eventually Ittar was employed to work on the great palazzo itself; he is believed to be responsible for much of the architecture in the inner courtyards and upper floors. This was the beginning of a form of partnership with Battaglia, and together they worked on various ecclesiastical buildings and Catania's hugeBenedictineMonastery of San Nicolò l'Arena, the largest in Europe. Here Ittar was responsible for the dome of the monastery's church which was constructed between 1768 and 1783. He also designed the semi-circular piazza in front of the unfinished facade of the church. Furthermore, the partnership was responsible for thePorta Ferdinandea (now the Porta Garibaldi), a city gate built with bands of black lava in the Baroque style and adorned by trumpeting angels and trophies. The architects went on to design the Piazza Palestro.
In 1767, Ittar was sufficiently renowned to go into business alone; buildings he designed in this period include the church ofSan Martino dei Bianchi, his first concave façade. The following year he completed what is considered his masterpiece: the facade of theBasilica della Collegiata, a church probably designed byAngelo Italia. ThisSicilian Baroque building is a classic example ofchiaroscuro technique. Ittar later designed the Church ofSan Placido, which has a facade adorned by a central Sicilianbell tower surmounted by statuary.
Following Vaccarini's death some years later, Ittar was invited by the governors of Catania to produce a contemporary plan of the city, highlighting the new straight streets an example of Baroque town planning. This map was later made into anengraving and mass-produced.
By 1783, his long term project designing the Benedictine monastery came to an end. Ittar was by this time one of Catania's most respected and influential architects and town planners. However, this was the year his life was to change completely. He was invited toMalta to design a newlibrary[3] for theOrder of St. John of Malta, whereupon Ittar and his family seem to have moved immediately toValletta. Here began a period of works created in a different style of architecture. The new library was of aclassical design, complete with columns, arches, windows andpediments, and not a broken pediment or curved facade in sight. The vast library, reminiscent of a huge classical palace, was finally completed in 1796, five years after Ittar's death.[4]
It was said, at the time, that Ittar had committedsuicide because of errors of architectural judgement leading to structural problems with the library; however, while the profusion of vast windows make the library a cold and draughty place of work, there is no evidence of severe structural error or other problems in the design. Records of his death show him dying in communion with the church, and as having received thelast rites, a sacrament which would not have been administered in the case of a suicide.
Two of his sons, Enrico and Sebastiano, also became architects who achieved some notability.
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