Melchor de Velasco Agüero


Category: Architect
Birth Date: (†† 4th September 1669)
Birth Place: Rivamontán (Santander)
 Curriculum

He arrived in Galicia in 1658 to widen St Paio Convent towards Vía Sacra (the cloister, cells and gate house). He carried out his most important work in Ourense (the church of the monastery in Celanova). The façade had been finished in 1653 and after pulling down the medieval inner part, he began to restore it in 1661. In 1667, he restored the bridge in Ourense. When he went back to Santiago, he carried out several works that showed the beginning of his stage of the greatest artistic activity. In 1662, the City Council of Santiago asked him for the plans for a public prison. In 1664, he built a part of Belvís Convent that leads to the vegetable garden. That same year, he signed a contract for building the church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios School. Owing to his fame, the monks at St Martín Pinario Convent nominated him as master builder, taking part in the widening of the convent. In 1668, he repaired the vault of the chapel of 'Hospital Real' in Santiago and was called to recognize the church of the convent of the Augustinian nuns in Lugo that had been built by Antonio Rodríguez Maseda.