Girolamo Cassar

Girolamo Cassar
Native name	Ġlormu Cassar
Born	c. 1520 Birgu or Gudja, Malta, Kingdom of Sicily
Died	c. 1592 Valletta, Malta
Resting place	Church of Porto Salvo, Valletta
Residence	probably Birgu, later Valletta
Nationality	Maltese
Occupation	Architect and military engineer
Employer	Order of St. John
Notable work	Various buildings in Valletta, including Saint John's Co-Cathedral, the Grandmaster's Palace and the auberges
Style	Mannerist
Spouse(s)	Mattea Cassar
Children	Vittorio Cassar Gabriele Cassar Marietitina Cassar Battistina Cassar Caterinella Cassar

Girolamo Cassar (Maltese: Ġlormu Cassar, c. 1520 – c. 1592) was a Maltese architect and military engineer. He was the resident engineer of the Order of St. John, and was admitted into the Order in 1569. He was involved in the construction of Valletta, initially as an assistant to Francesco Laparelli, before taking over the project himself. He designed many public, religious and private buildings in the new capital city, including Saint John's Co-Cathedral, the Grandmaster's Palace and the auberges.

He was the father of Vittorio Cassar, another architect and engineer.

Cassar's date of birth is not known, but he is believed to have been born in around 1520 in either Birgu or Gudja, to a Sicilian family who had lived in the Maltese islands since around 1440. Cassar was initially a capomastro (master builder), and he was a pupil of Evangelista Menga, the resident engineer of the Order of St. John. He worked as a military engineer during the Battle of Djerba in 1560 and the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. During the latter siege, he worked on repairing fortifications damaged by the Ottoman assaults, sometimes at great personal risk.

In 1566, the Order decided to construct a new capital city Valletta, and Cassar became the assistant of Francesco Laparelli, the Italian military engineer who had been sent to design the city's fortifications and grid plan. On 22 April 1569, Cassar was received within the Order in recognition of his merits as an architect and engineer. At this point, the Grand Master issued him a passport and Cassar spent the rest of the year touring Italian cities, including Naples, Rome and Lucca. He became familiar with the Mannerist style during this tour, and he employed this style in many of his later buildings.

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