Giovanni Fontana (architect)

Giovanni Fontana (Melide, 1540 – Rome, 1614) was a Dominican friar and late-Mannerist architect, as well as brother of Domenico Fontana.

Fontana built one of the most important rural villas of the Roman Campagna in 1601-1605 for the Aldobrandini family. Castello di Torrenova was originally a medieval farmhouse that Fontana enlarged and embellished with Renaissance details and crenellated walls. Next to the castle a small late Renaissance church was built for Saint Clement, the patron saint of the Aldobrandini Pope, Clement VIII. He also underwent some engineering projects, such as the draining of the Rieti Valley which was commissioned to him by pope Clement VIII in 1596.