The Town Icehouse

address: Ružić Street
Period: Secession/Art Noveau
Kind: Immovable material heritage
Century: 20
Year:
Purpose: industrial

In the 1920s, the political situation between Rijeka and Sušak changed significantly, when they became parts of two different states. Therefore, there were initiatives in Sušak to build their own meat factory and an icehouse, as the use of Rijeka icehouse Gorup, situated on the right bank of the Rječina, became rather uncertain. During 1925, on several occasions, the newspaper Primorski vjesnik pointed out the need for building an ice factory within the existing meat factory. The invitation to a public tender process for the construction of the icehouse was issued on 2 October 1928 by the Municipal Council. The Town Icehouse was opened in 1929, with the main task of manufacturing ice primarily for the preservation of meat. The icehouse was incorporated into the existing complex of the meat factory on Sušak’s bank of the Rječina, near the former Bakarčić-Simonić Tannery. The main building of the icehouse has been preserved until today, but the architect remains unknown. The building has a simple rectangular floor plan. The Art Nouveau façade is divided by using high and narrow mesh-glazed windows on a rough plastered wall. In the immediate vicinity of the icehouse there is a neglected chimney, hardly visible and covered with ivy. In the back part, under a rock, there was the rest of the complex, made of a number of smaller objects.

The Town Icehouse bears witness to a time when refrigerators did not yet exist, when ice was produced in factories or brought from the mountains. The activity of the icehouse was extremely important for the storage of meat and fish, and for supplying the needs of hotels during the tourist season.

The factory operated until the 1960s, when common refrigerators started being used. Until the beginning of the Second World War, ice production increased and then it began to decline significantly. 

Valorization:

The area where the icehouse complex and the meat conglomerate were located is almost unrecognizable today.