Description
The Palazzo del Ghiaccio is La Spezia's old ice factory, at the intersection of Via Colombo and Via Sprugola: an industrial building from the 1920s so elegant that today it looks like an office building, which is exactly what it became.
It was designed by a young Franco Oliva for the Società Anonima Industria del Freddo, which wanted to give the growing city a modern plant for preserving food. It opened in 1923. It's a four-story block in Secession style, its facades drawn upward by tall concrete piers alternating with equally tall windows.
The detail to look for is at the base of the piers: the bas-reliefs of polar animals by the sculptor Augusto Magli, a nod to the ice made inside. Once the factory closed, a bank bought and restored the building for its offices in 1976.
It was designed by a young Franco Oliva for the Società Anonima Industria del Freddo, which wanted to give the growing city a modern plant for preserving food. It opened in 1923. It's a four-story block in Secession style, its facades drawn upward by tall concrete piers alternating with equally tall windows.
The detail to look for is at the base of the piers: the bas-reliefs of polar animals by the sculptor Augusto Magli, a nod to the ice made inside. Once the factory closed, a bank bought and restored the building for its offices in 1976.