The Ex Mattatoio di Roma (the former Municipal Slaughterhouse of Rome, in the Testaccio quarter, the complex of industrial buildings constructed between 1888 and 1891 on the Testaccio plateau above the Tiber, designed by the architect Gioacchino Ersoch as the centralized abattoir that would consolidate all Roman meat processing in a single hygienic facility, replacing the scattered butchery practices that had characterized Roman meat supply since antiquity) is the most significant repurposed industrial complex in Rome: the 25-hectare complex of neoclassical industrial pavilions (the specific Ersoch design, the regular grid of brick pavilions with cast-iron structural elements, the central "mattatoio" processing hall, and the surrounding support buildings for the veterinary, administrative, and cold-storage functions) closed as a slaughterhouse in 1975 and has been progressively repurposed since the 1980s as a contemporary cultural campus.
The current Ex Mattatoio uses: the MACRO Testaccio (the Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma annex in the former cold-storage pavilion, the contemporary art exhibition space managed by the MACRO museum, open for temporary exhibitions), the Roma Tre University Architecture Faculty (which occupies the major pavilions as studios and lecture spaces, making the Ex Mattatoio a working university campus as well as a cultural institution), the Città dell'Altra Economia (the alternative economy market in the former auction pavilion, the weekly farmers' market, organic food market, and sustainable goods market), and the street food market Testaccio Market (the covered daily market relocated from the outdoor Piazza Testaccio to the Ex Mattatoio in 2012).
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Ex Mattatoio: Architecture, Art, and Market
The MACRO Testaccio
The MACRO Testaccio (the contemporary art annex in the former cold-storage pavilion of the Ex Mattatoio, open Thursday-Sunday 12:00-20:00. Free admission for the permanent collection, fee for temporary exhibitions) is the secondary exhibition space of the MACRO museum system (the primary MACRO is on Via Nizza in the Nomentano quarter). The MACRO Testaccio program focuses on large-scale installation and site-specific work that the industrial pavilion scale makes possible: the former cold-storage space (the pavilion with the specific brick vaulted ceiling and the iron structural grid that the refrigeration equipment once filled) is among the most dramatically industrial exhibition spaces in Rome.
The Testaccio Market
The Mercato di Testaccio (the daily covered market relocated to the Ex Mattatoio in 2012, the market in the former auction pavilion, open Monday-Saturday 7:00-15:00) is the best food market in Rome for the visitor who wants the specific intersection of traditional Roman food culture and the working-class Testaccio tradition: the pasta fresca (the fresh pasta makers who have supplied the Testaccio quarter restaurants for generations), the quinto quarto butcher stands (the offal cuts, pajata, rigatoni con la pajata, coda alla vaccinara, that the Testaccio slaughterhouse tradition made into the Roman cuisine identity), and the specific Testaccio street food stalls in the market (the supplì, the fried filetti di baccalà, and the seasonal vegetable preparations).
Q&A: Ex Mattatoio
Is Testaccio worth a visit for food alone?
Testaccio is worth visiting for food, the quarter is the single most historically significant neighborhood for Roman cuisine: the proximity to the slaughterhouse created the quinto quarto tradition (the "fifth quarter", the offal, innards, and secondary cuts that the slaughterhouse workers received as payment and that the Testaccio trattorie transformed into the Roman cuisine canon: coda alla vaccinara, trippa alla romana, pajata, rigatoni con la pajata). The best Testaccio food experience: the market (morning, 8:00-10:00 for the fresh food buy), a lunch at Roscioli or Flavio al Velavevodetto (the two Testaccio restaurant references for quality and authenticity), and the Ex Mattatoio cultural visit as a post-lunch walk.
Internal Links
- Cucina Romana: Il Quinto Quarto di Testaccio
- Mercato Testaccio: Il Cibo di Strada Romano
- Testaccio Fuori Stagione: Il Rione Autentico
- Arte Contemporanea Roma: MACRO e Ex Mattatoio
- Fotografare l'Ex Mattatoio: Industriale e Arte
- Trattorie Testaccio: Coda, Trippa e Pajata
- Architettura Industriale Roma: L'Ersoch e il Mattatoio
