The factory of playing cards - building

address: Rikarda Katalinića 4
Period: Historicism
Kind: Immovable material heritage
Century: 20
Year: 1915
Purpose: industrial

In the 1880s, the company Modiano started its own cigarette paper and playing cards factory in Trieste and, in 1915, Modiano built a factory for the manufacturing of playing cards in Rijeka. The factory was located in the former Via Goldoni (today Rikarda Katalinića Jeretova Street no. 4), and it was designed by architects, father and son Ambrosini. The plant was in use until 1931, when the production was terminated because a Budapest branch of the company was opened at the time. The facility in which the mentioned factory was located has been preserved to this day and is known under the name Uglovnica Modiano (Modiano Corner House). After his father’s death, Mario Ambrosini finished the construction according to the plans of Bruno Slocovich, the alleged author of the building’s blueprint. It is a monumental Art Nouveau building with highly interesting facade decorations and a pronounced vertical orientation, with prominent massive bay windows and somewhat more discreet cannelured pilasters with floral capitals.

Valorization:

The building of the former factory Modiano has been preserved as a representative example of historicism in Rijeka. Today it is being used as a residential area, and is in its most part privately owned by its tenants.