Mattatoio

The Mattatoio stretches across the Testaccio neighborhood with long, parallel rows of red brick buildings and iron roofs. Architect Gioacchino Ersoch designed this complex in the eighteen eighties to centralize Rome’s slaughterhouse operations. He integrated advanced cooling systems and hygienic rail networks to transport livestock efficiently. When a massive flood hit the Tiber in eighteen seventy, it trapped hundreds of cattle inside; the workers survived by climbing onto the roof tiles while the water surged through the halls below.