The ‘unequalled artist and architect Senior Anthonio, il maltese’, pioneer of Renaissance architecture and military engineering in Europe

Abstract

In the 1530s and 1540s the Maltese architect and military engineer Antonio (‘Fauczun’, ‘Anthoni Faissant’) signed responsible for the construction of several prestigious fortifications, fortresses, public edifices, and palaces in the German towns of Nuremberg, Lichtenau, Lauf, Hiltpoltsein, and Hersbruck, and most likely also in Heidelberg and Brzeg in Silesia (today in Poland). Most of these constructions were part of the avant-garde of early-sixteenth-century fortification technique and architecture and very much praised by the contemporaries. Until now the name of Antonio Falzon has escaped Maltese researchers and this paper aims to draw attention to this eminent architect and military engineer who apparently also was active as artisan and designer.