Giovanni Attard ( 1570–1636) was a

Maltese Maltese may refer to: * Someone or something of, from, or related to Malta * Maltese alphabet * Maltese cuisine * Maltese culture * Maltese language, the Semitic language spoken by Maltese people * Maltese people, people from Malta or of Maltese ...

architect, military engineer and stone carver from the town of

Lija Lija () is a small village in the Eastern Region, Malta, Eastern Region of Malta. Together with Attard and Balzan, it forms part of Malta's "Three villages of Malta, Three Villages" (). Lija has a baroque parish church and seven other small cha ...

. He is mostly known for his role in the construction of the

Wignacourt Aqueduct The Wignacourt Aqueduct () is a 17th-century Aqueduct (water supply), aqueduct in Malta, which was built by the Knights Hospitaller, Order of Saint John to carry water from springs in Dingli and Rabat, Malta, Rabat to the newly built capital ci ...

between 1610 and 1615. In 1609–10, he worked as a stone carver at the church of the Madonna tal-Għar and the adjoining Dominican priory at

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...

, along with stonemason Giuseppe Barbara. Attard was one of the ''capimastri'' (master builders) involved in the construction of the

. In 1612, Bolognese engineer Bontadino de Bontadini was appointed to take over the project when the Sicilian engineer Natale Tomasucci left Malta after being unable to solve the problem of how water would flow at points where the ground level dropped. Meanwhile, Attard proposed to construct stone arches along the depressions, and running the aqueduct through pipes in the arches. Bontadini adopted this idea, and the aqueduct was built within three years, being inaugurated on 21 April 1615.Piro, Giuseppe Maria and Slade, Adolphus (1839)
Squarci di storia e ragionamenti sull' isola di Malta, in confutazione ... dell' opera inglese intitolata Turkey, Greece, and Malta by Adolphus Slade, scritti da un Maltese (G.M. de Piro)
Origin:

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. Digitalized: 2 October 2007. p. 68. Attard worked as a stone carver on the Parish Church of St. Mary at

Attard Attard () is a town in the Northern Region of Malta. Together with Balzan and Lija, it forms part of the " Three Villages" () and has been inhabited since the Classical Period. It has a population of 12,268 as of 2021. Attard's traditional ...

with

Tommaso Dingli Tommaso Dingli (, 22 December 1591 – 28 January 1666) was a Maltese people, Maltese architect and sculptor. One of the last Renaissance architecture, Renaissance architects on the island, he designed several parish churches, most notably those ...

in 1615. The following year, he was involved in the reconstruction of the church of the Madonna tal-Għar with Domenico Azzopardi. Attard died in 1636 and was buried at the Lija parish church.

References

1570s births 1636 deaths People from Lija 17th-century Maltese architects Maltese military engineers Stone carvers People from Hospitaller Malta {{Malta-stub