Casa Bartoli (1905 - 1906)
piazza Della Borsa
Arch. Max Fabiani

In Piazza della Borsa, stands one of the most beautiful examples of protorational Liberty of the entire city: Casa Bartoli (1905-1906), the result of the imagination of Max Fabiani. If the definition of protorational Liberty may seem obscure and almost contradictory in itself, it is possible, however, to understand its full meaning by carefully observing the building: here, in fact, modernity is not so much represented by the floral decoration on the facade (which moreover, in the original project it had to be simpler and almost abstract), but rather from the extreme coherence of solutions that Fabiani devised to meet the new multi-functional needs of the building. Unlike many palaces, in fact, Casa Bartoli, from the beginning, had not been designed for residential use only; indeed, then as today, part of the structure was reserved for economic activity, with the presence of shops and offices. The first levels, which were then used as warehouses and commercial forums, have large windows; the veranda, characterized by elegant cast iron elements, served instead as the winter garden of a kosher restaurant, which allowed observant Jews to remain in the commercial area even during lunchtime, while the passage between the "public" part and the truly private one of the house is marked by the long and elegant balcony located just above the veranda. But the architect's innovative solutions do not end there. First of all, to give greater prominence to the shop windows, he thought of moving the entrance door from the main facade, facing the square, to a small recess on the left side and, moreover, he used reinforced concrete during the construction phase, at the time reserved for port facilities only.