The Centrale Mazzoni

The red-brick former heating plant of Venice railway station, its tall round chimney rising between two clipped hedges, framed by pale postwar apartment blocks, a closed iron gate in front — The round chimney and the brick block of the former heating plant, between later housing. Photo: Stefano Vigolo, 2022.

Venice, Cannaregio · 1933–1937 · Angiolo Mazzoni

The Centrale Mazzoni — Angiolo Mazzoni’s Heating Plant for Venice Station

Behind Santa Lucia station Angiolo Mazzoni built the thermal plant of the railway: brick, reinforced concrete and a round chimney, one of the very few rationalist buildings in the historic centre of Venice. It is now housing.

At a glance

The Centrale Mazzoni stands on the north side of Venezia Santa Lucia railway station, along the Fondamenta Priuli ai Cavaletti, with its courtyard facing the Rio di Crea. Angiolo Mazzoni, architect of the Italian State Railways, designed and built it between 1933 and 1937 as the thermal plant of the station. With the plant he built for Florence Santa Maria Novella it is one of his two main industrial works. Disused, it was converted into apartments and offices from 2005.

Key facts

Built: 1933–1937, designed by Angiolo Mazzoni
Purpose: the thermal plant of Venezia Santa Lucia railway station
Plan: L-shaped, around a courtyard facing the Rio di Crea, with a full-height central hall for the machinery
Construction: reinforced concrete frames, faced with thin strips of terracotta and stone mouldings; a round chimney
From 2005: converted by Fon Architetti into 32 homes and 7 offices
Awards for the conversion: Premio Raffaele Sirica 2010, first prize European Colour 2011
GPS: 45.44310, 12.31980 · Open in Google Maps

History

In the 1930s the State Railways were rebuilding the Venice terminus, and the station needed its own plant for heat. Angiolo Mazzoni, the railways’ architect, who in the same years designed the plant of Florence Santa Maria Novella, designed and built this one between 1933 and 1937. The plan followed the work inside: an L-shaped block organised around the handling of the coal, with a great hall at full height for the machinery.

When the plant went out of use the building stood empty. In 2005 the Venetian practice Fon Architetti was commissioned to convert it, and it now holds 32 homes and 7 offices over six floors. The conversion kept the brick shell and the chimney, and won the Premio Raffaele Sirica in 2010 and the first prize of European Colour in 2011.

What you see

From the gate on the fondamenta, the building is half hidden. What you see first is the chimney, a tall round shaft of red brick, and beside it the brick block of the plant, its wall cut by narrow vertical openings. Clipped hedges fill the courtyard, and later apartment blocks press in on both sides, so that the plant reads as the oldest thing in a modern street, which in Venice it very nearly is.

Nearby

Venezia Santa Lucia station — the station it was built to serve
Palazzo Grandi Stazioni — by the station
Ponte della Libertà — the road bridge to the mainland

Sources

Laterizio, Il progetto di recupero della Centrale Mazzoni a Venezia: the dates 1933–37, the L plan on the Fondamenta Priuli ai Cavaleti and the Rio di Crea, the concrete frames with terracotta strips, the chimney, the 2005 conversion by Fon Architetti into 32 homes and 7 offices, the two awards
Comitato abruzzese del paesaggio, Centrale Mazzoni di Venezia: the building as one of the few rationalist works in the historic centre
Wikipedia (English), Angiolo Mazzoni: the Venice plant and the Florence plant as his two main industrial works

Gallery

The former heating plant of Venice station seen from a ramp, the round brick chimney and the brick block beyond a gate and hedges, apartment blocks on the right — From the ramp on the fondamenta: the chimney and the plant beyond the gate. Photo: Stefano Vigolo, 2022.

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Travel tips from CHO

Go on the first Sunday of the month

State museums, archaeological parks and monuments across Italy open free of charge on the first Sunday of every month. It covers state-run sites only — civic and private museums set their own prices — and there is nothing to claim: you simply walk in.

The ministry’s free days →

In September, the doors that are usually shut open

For one long weekend every September, some fifty European countries run the European Heritage Days together: palaces, workshops, archives and private houses that are closed the rest of the year let visitors in, almost always for nothing. Italy sets its own dates, and they are published a few weeks ahead.

Dates, country by country →

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