The complex of the Ex-Abattoir and the Campo Boario was carried out according to the project of the architect Gioacchino Ersoch, between 1888 and 1891, when the city of Rome was the object of remarkable works oriented to its transformation in Rome The Capital.
The Ersoch complex takes up coeval experiences in transalpine countries, becoming a symbolic place of functional innovation and modern technology: iron, used with structural and decorative function, cast iron pillars and columns, glass windows, flexibility of the space and distribution of singular blocks based on the principle of functionality.
The Slaughterhouse takes up a very large area, on the edge of the walled city between the river and the railway; it is encompassed by Lungotevere Testaccio, via Benjamin Franklin, via Aldo Manunzio and viale del Campo Boario, extending for more than 105.000 m2, of which 43.000 covered by buildings.

As far as the distribution of the space is concerned, the architect took account of the internal dynamics, considering all the single working phases which were, at the same time, part of one controlled system directed its gaze towards industrial mass-production. The central area is used for primary functions, whereas the perimeter fence for the secondary ones; from a structural point of view, are distinguishable representation buildings, on two floors, with bearingwalls made of solid bricks, attics in iron and bricks, finely decorated by freezes and frames in neoclassical style; the buildings “pavilions” with perimeter bearingwalls made of solid bricks, refined in travertine and covered by roof with iron and brick truss, and the buildings with open roof, characterized by vertical structures made of stamped cast iron, and by sloping roof with iron and bricks trusses..

(G. Belardi)

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