Egy toszkán építész Erdélyben: Sigismondo da Pratovecchio da Pisa
A Tuscan Architect in Transylvania: Sigismondo da Pratovecchio da Pisa

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses the Transylvanian activity of the Tuscan architect Sigismondo da Pratovecchio da Pisa, providing new data concerning his career. Before being employed by King Ferdinand I of Habsburg (1545) he had probably served the duke of Florence, Cosimo I dei Medici. He worked in the service of the Habsburg sovereign on fortifications and civil building sites in Austria as well as in Hungary. In July 1551 Sigismondo was sent as royal architect to Transylvania. After inspecting the town walls of Alba Iulia and Sebeș, he focused on the fortification of the western frontier, namely on the fortresses from Lipova, Timișoara, Bečej, Zrenjanin and Oradea. He worked as a designer architect as well as foreman, however none of his plans or designs have survived. Therefore we only know some of his ideas concerning the defense of the above-mentioned fortresses from the correspondence of the time, a part of which is edited in the annex of the present paper. In the summer of 1552 Sigismondo was sent to Khust, afterwards he worked together with his son, Felice, on several fortresses from northern Hungary, and he probably never returned to Transylvania again.

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