Aristide Leonori (28 July 1856 – 30 July 1928) was an Italian architect and engineer. He worked mostly on religious buildings in Italy, the United States, and Africa. He had a variety of styles in which he worked.
Leonori set up his own studio in 1884. He mainly worked in building churches and religious structures, adopting styles and characters requested by the client. Many of his commissions came from religious institutes. In 1886 he became a Franciscan tertiary, and with two others founded a night shelter for abandoned children.[2]
From 1890 onwards, he was architect of the chapter of Santa Maria in Trastevere, directing a series of restorations in the basilica until 1923. In the 1890s he began a series of overseas travels from which a number of assignments developed. He often collaborated on design with his younger brother Pio in Rome, and later with his nephew Francisco.[2]
Leonori also worked in Egypt, Mauritania, Ireland, Prague, Warsaw, and elsewhere. One of his biggest projects was the design and construction of the Church of St. Joseph in Cairo, Egypt, built in 1909. He often provided his services free of charge for projects for religious complexes in India, Africa and South America.
Between 1898 and 1913, he published in Rome a twice-monthly magazine in Latin titled Vox Urbis: de litteris et bonis artibus commentarius. He also wrote:
The Italian industries at the National Exhibition in Milan in 1881…, Rome (1882)
Leo XIII and the arts, Rome (1888)
The most distinguished cathedrals of the thirteenth century, Rome (1891)