Mattia de Rossi
Mattia de Rossi (14 January 1637 – 2 August 1695) was an Italian Baroque architect who worked mainly in Rome and nearby towns. He came from a family of builders and learned from Gian Lorenzo Bernini, eventually taking over as chief architect of the Fabbrica di San Pietro (the workshop of St. Peter’s Basilica) in 1680 after Bernini’s death. In that role he continued Bernini’s plans for the exterior colonnade and the Ponte Sant’Angelo. He faced strong competition from other architects, such as Carlo Fontana.
His major works include the facades of the churches of Santa Galla and San Francesco a Ripa (built 1681–1701), and finishing touches or reconstructions for Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, Santa Maria in Montesanto, and Santa Croce e San Bonaventura dei Lucchesi. He also designed the customs office in Ripa Grande and is attributed with the Palazzo Muti Papazzurri (circa 1660). He created the tomb monument to Giovanna Garzoni in Santi Luca e Martina, the Mausoleum of Leo X, and the monument to Clement X in St. Peter’s Basilica (the latter designed by de Rossi with sculpture by others).
De Rossi served as the director (Principe) of the Accademia di San Luca in 1681 and again from 1690 to 1693, when Carlo Fontana took over.
A new attribution suggests he helped design, perhaps with Bernini, the centralized church and complex of San Bonaventura at Monterano (1677), a hilltop sanctuary commissioned by Don Angelo Altieri and built for the Padri delle Scuole Pie. In 1683 he worked for Camillo Pamphilj in Valmontone, planning the main church, the Collegiata (Church of Saint Mary), inspired by Borromini’s Sant’Agnese in Agone and the Church of the Assunta in Ariccia. In 1685 he decorated the chapel of San Paolo in Santa Maria in Campitelli for Cardinal Raimondo Capizucchi.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 23:25 (CET).