An approach to the figure of Juan de Ochoa: Spanish architect and hydraulic engineer from the 16th Century

Abstract

Juan de Ochoa Méndez (1554-1606) was a Spanish renaissance architect who lived from the second half of the 16th century to the beginning of the 17th. Based in Córdoba, he is one of the major disseminators of architectural Mannerism in the peninsular area. Like his father, Martín de Ochoa, he was an efficient engineer with extensive work in the field of hydraulics; and in the field of residential architecture, he was able to interpret the needs of the Córdoba elites. However, it was religious architecture that granted him special recognition, thanks to his position as grand master of the Córdoba cathedral, which allowed him to face the closing of the temple project which the erection of the dome presiding transept and choir lowered canyon.