Biography
Born in Palermo, he studied architecture in Rome. His first contacts with the Spanish monarchy was when he participated in the construction of the Palace of Caserta for the King of Naples and Duke of Parma and Tuscany, Charles VII, the future King Charles III of Spain. When he was raised to the Spanish throne, he called Sabatini to Madrid in 1760, where he was positioned above the most outstanding Spanish architects of the time. He was appointed as Great Master of Royal Works, with the rank of lieutenant colonel at the Engineers Corps, simultaneously designated also as an honorary academician of the Academia Real de Bellas Artes de San Fernando.
Sabatini's works are all encompassed within the neoclassicism tradition, but unlike other neoclassic authors, he was not inspired fundamentally by old Greece and Rome, but by the Italian Renaissance architecture.
His talent as an architect and the favor that was professed to him by the king brought many commissions of architectural work. His professional talents were awarded in many occasions. He was promoted to lieutenant general of the Engineers Corps, was granted the degree of Knight of the Order of Santiago, and had direct access to the circle of confidence of the king after his designation as gentilhombre de camara (Gentleman of the Royal Chamber).
The Gardens of Sabatini (located in front of the North facade of the Royal Palace of Madrid, between the Bailén street and the hill of San Vicente) were not designed by him, but that were created in the 1930s in the place which they occupied in the stables constructed by Sabatini for servicing the palace.
Furthermore, Sabatini was responsible for building the Arms Factory of Toledo, the headquarters for the Wallon Guarda in Leganés (presently part of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), a convent in Valladolid (Santa Ana) and another one in Granada (Comendadoras of Santiago) and the well-known Chapel of the Immaculate in the Cathedral of Osma, also called of Palafox.
He died in Madrid in 1792.
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