Vitaliano Poselli

Vitaliano Poselli (1838–1918) was an Italian architect from Sicily, mostly known for his work in the city of Thessaloniki in northern Greece.

Life

He was born in Castiglione di Sicilia in 1838, and studied in Rome. In 1867, the Catholic Church ordered him the construction of the Church of Saint Stephen in Constantinople.

From there, the Ottoman government sent him to Thessaloniki, where he built some of the most important public edifices of the city. In 1888 he was married and established his residence there. The foreign missions and representatives, such as wealthy merchants of the city, assigned him also the creation of various communal, merchant or private buildings.

Some of his most known works is the Government House (1891), the Imperial Army Headquarters – today III Army Corps Headquarters – the New Mosque (1902), the Allatini Mills, the Karipeion Melathron, the State Conservatory building (former Ottoman Bank), the Stoa Malakopi (old Banque de Salonique), the Bank of Athens building (today the Jewish Museum of Thessaloniki), Villa Allatini (for the Allatini family, today housing the prefecture), Villa Morpurgo (or Vila Zardinidi), the Armenian and the Catholic churches.

He died in 1918. Many of his descendants still live in the city.