Michele Sanmicheli born in San Michele Extra in 1484 and died in Verona in 1559, was one of the greatest Italian mannerist architects and town planners. After having stayed in Rome to do his training studying the art of Bramante, Raphael, Sansovino and Sangallo, he returned to Verona where he will receive, in the course of his life, numerous and prestigious commissions. Engaged by the Serenissima as a military architect, he designed numerous fortifications in the vast Venetian empire, thus assuring himself a great reputation.
In fact, as well as in Italy, where he can find his works in Venice, Verona, Bergamo and Brescia, he worked a lot in Dalmatia, in Zadar, Sibenik, Crete and Corfu. Thanks to stays in these last places it was probably the only Italian architect of the sixteenth century who had the opportunity to see and study Greek architecture, a possible source of inspiration for the use of Doric columns without bases. Tireless worker, in addition to military buildings, he also worked on the design of palaces and religious architecture of great value.
In 1548 he realized, in Venice, the Corner Mocenigo palace, which overlooks the San Polo field in the Santa Croce district [29], which same innovative elements can be found in his later works: Palazzo Roncale in Rovigo, Palazzo Honorij in Verona ( 1553-54) and Palazzo Grimani di San Luca in Venice (from about 1556), which is also his last masterpiece.
In 1555 he produced drawings for the remaking of the Bucintoro deposit at the Venice arsenal, while the following year he worked on the construction of a triumphal arch for the entry of Bona Sforza in Padua.
Hardly tried by the loss of his beloved nephew Giangirolamo, in which he saw his successor, he ended his career with the design of the circular church of Madonna di Campagna, completed by Bernardino Brugnoli near Verona. On April 29, 1559, he dictated his will, indicating his cousin Paul as his universal heir, and towards the end of August of the same year he died in his hometown because of a violent fever. His remains are kept in the church of San Tomaso Cantuariense.