Pescheria Nuova

Rovigo's Pescheria Nuova, built in the 1870s, was the city's first iron-and-glass structure. Its neo-Gothic façade fronts a bright hall with iron columns, a glass roof and white marble fish benches; the restored building now serves as a civic exhibition space.

Why it matters

The Pescheria Nuova reflects the sanitary modernisation of Italian cities after unification. Built around the 1870s, it combined an industrial iron-and-glass structure with a neo-Gothic exterior. The municipal portal identifies it as the first such building in Rovigo. After the fish trade moved elsewhere, the city preserved and adapted the hall for cultural use.

What to notice

The façade combines pointed arches, a large central portal and a balustrade in Liberty style. Inside, iron columns divide the single hall and carry the broad glass-and-iron roof truss. White marble benches with inclined surfaces once allowed water from melting ice to drain away from the fish; one original bench remains in place. The daylight-filled interior expresses the building's original function as a market hall.

Context and history

In 1871 the earlier eighteenth-century fish market in what is now Via Cesare Battisti was demolished as part of a drive to modernise the city and improve hygiene. The new market was built on Corso del Popolo, near the Adigetto. It served Rovigo for about a century. After the fish trade declined in the late twentieth century, restoration adapted the building as a multipurpose civic venue. Its exhibition hall, named for Alberto Brigo, is used for exhibitions, presentations and conferences.