ROME, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Italy on Monday mourned the passing of Vittorio Gregotti, one of Italy's best-known post-war architects, who fell victim at the age of 92 to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Gregotti was a protagonist of both the neo-avant-garde and post-modernist movement, and he is best known for his design of the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona where the 1992 Olympics were held.
In addition to his architectural triumphs, Gregotti was seen as one of his discipline's greatest thinkers having worked for many years as an architectural critic and commentator.
Amid the spread of the high-profile outbreak of coronavirus in Italy, Gregotti's passing was front-page news in newspapers and news sites across Italy.
Il Post called Gregotti "a visionary" and La Stampa, under a headline "Farewell to Gregotti", called him "a marvel" and "an icon." The financial daily Il Sole/24 Ore referred to him as "the last great master of twentieth-century architecture" and said he was "a true man of ideas."
Gregotti was born in Novara in Piedmont, northwestern Italy, and he died in Milan on Sunday.
