Giovanni Attard ( 1570–1636) was a Maltese architect, military engineer and stone carver from the town of

Lija Lija ( mt, Ħal Lija) is a small village in the Central Region of Malta. It forms part of the Three villages of Malta, along with Attard and Balzan. Lija has a baroque parish church and seven other small chapels. The parish church is dedicat ...

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

Wignacourt Aqueduct The Wignacourt Aqueduct ( mt, L-Akwedott ta' Wignacourt) is a 17th-century aqueduct in Malta, which was built by the Order of Saint John to carry water from springs in Dingli and Rabat to the newly built capital city Valletta. The aqueduct w ...

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, 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 after 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 Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

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

Attard Attard ( mt, Ħ'Attard) is a town in the Central 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 trad ...

with

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

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 {{Malta-stub