Aristide Leonori

Aristide Leonori (28 July 1856 – 30 July 1928) was an Italian architect and engineer. He worked mostly on religious buildings in Italy, the United States, and Africa. He had a variety of styles in which he worked.

Biography Born in Rome, the eldest of twelve children of Rafael and Anna Ianari Leonori, After graduating from high school, he attended architecture courses at the Accademia di San Luca, studying under Virginio Vespignani. Vespignani involved him in work on a new apse at the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran (1882-86).

Leonori set up his own studio in 1884. He mainly worked in building churches and religious structures, adopting styles and characters requested by the client. Many of his commissions came from religious institutes. In 1886 he became a Franciscan tertiary, and with two others founded a night shelter for abandoned children. Leonori contributed to several other churches in the United States: the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis (1907); and Holy Rosary Church in Washington, D.C. (1923).thumb Memorial in the Basilica Santa Maria in Aracoeli (Rome)Between 1898 and 1913, he published in Rome a twice-monthly magazine in Latin titled Vox Urbis: de litteris et bonis artibus commentarius. He also wrote: The Italian industries at the National Exhibition in Milan in 1881…, Rome (1882) Leo XIII and the arts, Rome (1888) The most distinguished cathedrals of the thirteenth century, Rome (1891)

Leonori was a member of various Catholic associations. In 1886, he was made a knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great; and in 1912, of the Order of St. Sylvester. He died in Rome in 1928.

Leonori was declared a Servant of God by the Catholic Church. thumb Works (partial) Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America, Washington D.C. (1898) Chapel of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome. (1887) San Patrizio, Rome (1908) San Giuseppe al Trionfale, Rome (1909) St. Joseph Cathedral, Buffalo, New York) (1912); demolished. two chapels in the Cathedral of Saint Louis, St. Louis, Missouri (1912-14) Shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei, Pompei (1912) bell tower Santa Croce in Via Flaminia, Rome (1913)