Giovanni Antonio Medrano (1703–1760) was a Sicilian born in Sciacca (rather than in Palermo) in 1703, and who had entered the service of Spain in 1719 as a Military Architect, although it is probable that he had already joined the army of the

Marquis of Verboom Jorge Próspero de Verboom, 1st Marquess of Verboom (9 January 1665 – 19 January 1744), was a Flemish-born military engineer in the service of the King of Spain. On , King Philip V granted him the title of Marquess of Verboom. His fathe ...

Jorge Próspero de Verboom, in the Sicilian campaign of 1718, since in December of that same year he appeared as extraordinary engineer and sub-lieutenant of this body, and in 1720 he worked in the Principality of Catalonia. He reappears in 1729, when Medrano was commissioned to organize the roads for the journey of the royal family, headed by Philip V and Isabel de Farnese, from Madrid to Seville. He became a

brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. ...

in the army of Charles of Bourbon, while he was king of the

Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ( it, Regno delle Due Sicilie) was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1860. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and size in Italy before Italian unification, comprising Sicily and all ...

. Following the

Battle of Bitonto The Battle of Bitonto (25 May 1734) was a Spanish victory over Austrian forces near Bitonto in the Kingdom of Naples (in southern Italy) in the War of Polish Succession. The battle ended organized Austrian resistance outside a small number of ...

in 1734, Charles had Medrano construct a commemorative obelisk in

Bitonto Bitonto (; nap, label= Bitontino, Vetònde) is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Bari (Apulia region), Italy. It lies to the west of Bari. It is nicknamed the "City of Olives", due to the numerous olive groves surrounding the cit ...

. Medrano’s career is particularly studied, from his stay in Seville as a teacher for the royal princes, and his influence on Prince Charles’ architectural taste, to his projects in the kingdom of Naples or the royal palace at Capodimonte. Obcarolino

Education of Charles III, Designing the San Carlo Opera House and Rise in Ranks

During this Andalusian period, Medrano began to deal with the military and architectural education of the Infante Don Carlos and his brothers; of these tasks, for "''instruction and amusement of the Most Serene Prince our Lord and Lords Infantes''", there are two plans of a Fort, erected between 1729 and 1730 in Buenavista, on the outskirts of Seville, which included a ravelin dedicated to the Infante don Carlos himself. In 1731 he left Seville to accompany the Infante don Carlos, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, on his trip to Italy. From 1732 to 1734 he remained in the service of the Infante, teaching him geography, history and mathematics, as well as military engineering and architecture during his stay in the cities of

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second m ...

and

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

. The fact that he was promoted in 1733 to lieutenant and ordinary engineer and, later and already in Naples, in 1737, to brigadier and chief engineer, testifies to his efforts and work. Medrano also appears as "''Major Regius Praefectus Mathematicis Regni Neapolitani''"(''Major Royal Governor of Mathematics of the Kingdom of Naples'') even apparently a year before he was named chief engineer of the kingdom, a title he did not receive until 1735. In 1737, Charles commissioned Medrano to design the new San Carlo opera house in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

The Palace of Capodimonte

Medrano then went on to design the

Museo di Capodimonte Museo di Capodimonte is an art museum located in the Palace of Capodimonte, a grand Bourbon palazzo in Naples, Italy. The museum is the prime repository of Neapolitan painting and decorative art, with several important works from other Italia ...

, Charles's new palace and museum in Naples. Medrano started work on this in 1738, but the building was not finally completed until 1840. However, still in 1738, with the engineer from Zaragoza

Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre Roque Joaquín de Alcubierre (16 August 1702 – 14 March 1780) was a military engineer in the Spanish Army who discovered architectural remains at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Early life Alcubierre was born and studied in Zaragoza, Spain. When he rea ...

, Medrano began the excavations of

Herculaneum Herculaneum (; Neapolitan and it, Ercolano) was an ancient town, located in the modern-day ''comune'' of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Like the n ...

, giving rise to a new type of activity. Also, on the occasion of the festivities for the marriage of Carlos with Maria Amalia of Saxony, Princess of Poland, that same year a cuccagna was erected on the Chiaia riverside, in front of the church of San Leonardo, allestita by Medrano, who perhaps also project the pavilion, in the form of an old castle on a palafitte, with four corner towers and a central one, bastions, moats, battlements, embrasures and sentry boxes, as well as two rebellines with parapets and new sentry boxes. It is possible that shortly after he resumed his work as a

military engineer Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics ...

, since in 1746 he signed a plan of the plaza and

bay of Gibraltar The Bay of Gibraltar ( es, Bahía de Algeciras), is a bay at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula. It is around long by wide, covering an area of some , with a depth of up to in the centre of the bay. It opens to the south into the Strait ...

, where he would have moved for effect, but to return to Naples, where he was in 1751, projecting the Terrasanta of the church of the Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini (Santa Maria di Materdomini), whose environment has recalled solutions with a Vanvitellian flavor and testifies to a single relative eclipse of his Neapolitan fortune. After that date, his name seems to have disappeared completely.''Entre Sevilla y Nápoles: Juan Antonio Medrano, Ferdinanto Sanfelice y los Borboñes de Espana de Felipe V a Carlos III''
Fernando Marías, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Atrio 10/11 páges.47-56

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1703 births 1760 deaths People from Sciacca 18th-century Italian architects Architects from Sicily {{Italy-architect-stub