Viscardi, Giovanni Antonio

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Viscardi, Giovanni Antonio (1645–1713). A Ticinese, he settled in Munich where he became Court Architect in 1685. From 1702 he enlarged Schloss Nymphenburg by adding the pavilions and began the saloon. He was involved briefly with E. Zuccalli (his rival) in the building of the Theatinerkirche (Church of the Theatines) St Kajetan, Munich, in the 1680s, and designed the Dreifaltigkeitskirche (Church of the Holy Trinity) in the same city (1711–18). Probably his best work is Wallfahrtskirche (Pilgrimage Church) Mariahilf, Freystadt, near Nuremberg (1700–10), a high-domed centrally planned building, incorporating circle, cross, and octagon, that was to influence Bähr in his design for the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady), Dresden. Other buildings by him include the Cistercian Monastery Church at Fürstenfeldbruck (1701–6), one of the largest and grandest of Bavarian Baroque churches, a larger version of his Premonstratensian (now Parish) Church of Sts Peter and Paul, Freising-Neustift (1700–21).

Bibliography

Bourke (1962);
Lippert (1969);
C. Powell (1959);
Jane Turner (1969);

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