Antonio Lasciac


Antonio Lasciac or Anton Laščak was an architect, engineer, poet and musician of Slovene descent, who designed the Khedive Palace in Istanbul and the Tahra Palace in Cairo.

Life

Lasciac was born to Peter Laščak and Jožefa in the Italian Gorizia suburb of San Rocco in 1856. He was the first of ten children. Three of his siblings died in childhood. He immigrated to Gorizia and opened a business with Mihael Trampuš, another Slovene. He fell in love with Trampuš's daughter and took over his crafts workshop after the marriage. Her official Italian name is written as Gioseffa. Her father Mihael was born in Gorizia, to farmers from the surrounding Karst Plateau. Lasciac's wife Marija Alojzija Plesničar was Slovene and bore three children with unusual and fully Italian names: Plautilla Angelina Francesca, Fabbrizio Antonio Giuseppe and Romeo Italico Alessandro. Lasciac designed buildings in Gorizia and many Eastern capitals and cities, especially Egypt. The Khedive Palace in Istanbul and the Tahra Palace in Cairo are among his most notable works.

Honors

Asteroid 292459 Antoniolasciac, discovered by astronomers at the Italian Farra d'Isonzo Observatory in 2006, was named in his memory. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 14 November 2016.