Filippo Juvara (1678-1736), the greatest Italian architect of the 18th century, was an immensely imaginative and prolific designer.

Filippo Juvara was born in Messina, Sicily, on March 27, 1678, the son of a silversmith. In Messina he would have seen the buildings of Guarino Guarini, but at this stage of his career he was probably equally influenced by the exuberant fantasy associated with his father's trade and his Sicilian background, so that it is not surprising to find him practicing as a stage designer in later years.

In 1703 or 1704 Juvara went to Rome and began to work under Carlo Fontana, the most celebrated architectural teacher of the age. Fontana is said to have told Juvara to forget everything he had ever learned and to start all over again: this may well be true, since Fontana's late baroque style was much more classical than the--presumably riotous--fantasy of Juvara's imagination at that...