João Frederico Ludovice

Johann Friedrich Ludwig (19 March 1673 in Baden-Wurttemberg – 18 January 1752 in Lisbon), known in Portugal as João Frederico Ludovice, was a German-born Portuguese architect and goldsmith.

The youngest son of Peter Ludwig, administrator of Schwäbisch Hall, and his wife Elisabetha Rosina von Engelhardt, he was born on March 19, 1673, at Honhardt Castle.

His uncle and godfather, Johann Wilhelm von Engelhardt, an amateur architect with a keen aesthetic sense, took charge of the young man's education, introducing him to architecture.

Upon leaving the army in 1697, he went to Italy in the company of the goldsmith Johann Adolf Gaap and settled in Rome, where he developed his artistic skills, particularly in sculpture and architecture, and changed his surname to Ludovici.

While serving the Society of Jesus, he worked at the Church of the Gesù (Rome), casting and engraving the statue of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (created by Groos) and various liturgical objects.

The young king Dom João V commissioned Ludovici to restructure the old Paço da Ribeira and its former Manueline Chapel, transforming it into the Patriarchal Church of Lisbon.

Among the competitors were famous Italian architects Filippo Juvarra and António Canevari, who worked on other projects for the Portuguese Court; however, the monarch chose Ludovici's design.

The decree mentioned his 43 years of service to Dom João V, noting that his designs and models, once executed, reflected the magnificence of the monarch who commissioned them, and that his instruction of the workers had significantly advanced the arts in the kingdom.

As historian Vilhena de Barbosa later emphatically wrote (in "Estudos Históricos e Arqueológicos - Volume II"): "[...] this appointment of the octogenarian artist was not a reward for his services.