Magazzini Duilio 48, Art Deco commercial building in Viareggio, Italy.
Magazzini Duilio 48 is a two-story rectangular building with pillars creating display windows on the southern side, while the upper floor features curvilinear windows and decorative wrought-iron railings. The ground floor was designed as a commercial space, with residential areas accessible through a rear staircase.
Built between 1927 and 1930 following the 1917 fire in Viareggio, the structure was part of a reconstruction effort that replaced wooden coastal buildings with permanent masonry construction. This period marked a fundamental reshaping of the city with modern architectural styles.
The name comes from the fixed price of 48 centesimi, the formula devised by Giuseppe Siebzehner, a Vienna-born merchant from a Polish family of Kańczuga. The Viareggio branch first opened in a counter where the Gabrielli shoe shop now stands, next to the Magazzini. Siebzehner's sons later ran the firm: Giorgio, a lawyer who wrote a dictionary of the Divine Comedy, and Federico, an electronics engineer.
The building stands at the corner of Viale Regina Margherita and Via Fregoli: eight bays face the viale, three of them glazed as shop windows, while the entrance occupies the central bay of the three on Via Fregoli. The upper flat is reached by the original service staircase at the rear, and a small rear extension adjoins it.
In the 1990s the building transformed into the Liberty Store, specializing in music and video games, while the historic exterior features remained untouched. This repurposing showed how modern retail adapted to historical structures.
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