Egle Trincanato (1910-1998)

Egle Renata Romana Trincanato was born in Rome on 3rd June 1910.

His childhood was marked by frequent moves due to the work of his father, Alessandro Ernesto, who was a merchant from Piove di Sacco (PD); his mother, Alice Antonietta Formenti, was a milliner.

It was not until 1926 that the Trincanato family moved permanently to Venice, where, after graduating from high school, Egle enrolled at the Regio Istituto Superiore di Architettura. It was during her university career that she met Guido Cirilli, her first teacher, and the Palermo architect Giuseppe Samonà, to whom she was bound by a deep professional and emotional bond and with whom, in the following years, she would collaborate on numerous projects, such as the INA-Casa building in Treviso (1949-1953), the new INAIL offices in Venice (1951-1956) and the experimental design of the INA-Casa San Giuliano quarter in Mestre.

In 1938, she was the first woman to receive a degree in Architecture at the Venetian university, obtaining top marks. He immediately started practising his profession, while also teaching in high schools. Ha iniziato subito a esercitare la sua professione, insegnando anche nelle scuole superiori.

His temperament is well illustrated by an episode in 1947, when, on the occasion of a municipal call for applications for the position of Head of the Technical-Artistic Division, which excluded the participation of women, Trincanato appealed and obtained a change in the call for applications.

Her publications and her involvement in numerous projects of the municipality of Venice contributed significantly to the appreciation of her professional value: in fact, in the decade 1954-64, she held the prestigious post of director of the Doge’s Palace, which she only left when she won the competition for the chair of Elements of architecture and relief of monuments at the Polytechnic of Turin. He was also responsible for numerous restorations and curated numerous painting exhibitions.

In 1974, she became vice-director of the IUAV (University Institute of Architecture of Venice), while the following year she was appointed director of the Institute of Surveying and Restoration, a department she conceived, wanted and founded.

He continued to hold numerous positions and receive awards – including the Gold Medal for Merit in Science and Culture from the President of the Republic (1997) – working tirelessly on his projects and writings until the last years of his life.

She died in Mestre on 5th March 1998.

You can consult the birth certificate on the Ancestors Portal:Archivio di Stato di Roma > Stato civile italiano > Roma > 1910

The original is kept at the State Archives of Rome.

The archive of Egle Trincanato (1860-1998; 1131 units) is kept at the IUAV – Archivio Progetti.

Archivio di Stato di Roma > Stato civile italiano > Roma > 1910
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