Luigi Poletti (architect)

In 1823, the ancient Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, one of the seven pilgrimage churches of Rome, was destroyed by fire.

But he proposed to build a church as if the original builders had returned and, in their spirit, availed themselves of all the erudition compiled in the interim, revisiting the design and correcting its errors.

He built the Cathedral of Montalto delle Marche on the foundations that had been started under Pope Sixtus V. He designed the church of San Filippo in the town of Nocera (disambiguate?).

He completed the chapel and altar of Santissima Maria (called dell'acqua) in San Francesco in Rimini.

He designed a number of funereal monuments in and around Rome including one dedicated to Vincenzo Casciani (1832) in the Costa Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo and to the papal architect Cavalierie Pietro Bosio in the Campo Santo.

Poletti's name is inscribed in bronze lettering on the façade of the Amintore Galli Theatre he designed: Aere Civium Ingenio Aloisii Poletti Anno MDCCCLVII (With the money of citizens, by the genius of Luigi Poletti, in the year 1857). [ 2 ]