Alberto Cristofori

Bruno Sarti (1898 – 1962)

The Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Crafts, and Agriculture was built in Gorizia in August 1850. The immediate aftermath of the outbreak of World War I brought a partial economic standstill in Gorizia and the suspension of all new projects, so much so that the Chamber of Commerce was forced to move its offices and archives to Vienna. In 1926, the Chamber of Commerce was transformed into the Provincial Economic Council and subsequently became a State Office under the Ministry of Corporations. Cristofori, adhering to the canons of Fascist monumentalism, managed to incorporate classical elements into the design. The building stands on a plinth and extends over two floors. The central body is solid, and the side walls are connected to the central body by a semicircle of wall fabric and exposed brick. The Chamber of Commerce's coat of arms is a coin, a symbol of commerce, depicting Winged Mercury holding a caduceus. Gorizia Castle can be seen in the background.

The Chamber of Commerce is located parallel to Via Roma. The street, built in the 1930s above the gardens of the seventeenth-century Ursuline Convent, was intended to be a monumental and celebratory route, mimicking the Imperial Forums of Rome, between the Provincial Council of Corporations and Piazza della Vittoria. This square would host Mussolini's visit in September 1938, the year in which he inaugurated numerous works in Italy, including the INAIL (National Institute for Industrial Accidents and Illegal Work) building in Gorizia and the main building of the University of Trieste. The new Via Roma was designed to accommodate new buildings, with Modernist characteristics, as a manifesto of the regime's architecture.